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THE UOLY FAMILY. 



FROM 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

A Life of Christ 
In Words of One Syllable, 

" MRS. EDWARD ASHLEY WALKER, " 
ti 

AriHOB OF "BTTNTAil'S PILGEIM'S PROGRESS," IN -WOKDS OF ONE SYLLABLE, 

*' WATSON'S WOODS," " MAKGAEET AT HOME," " OTJK LITTLE GIELS," 

" THE TWO HEAPS," ETC., ETC. 

With Illustrations '^in Oil Coloi\s. 



New York: 
Published by Geo. A. ^/EAyitt, 

No. 8 Howard Street. 



3'T'i'^ 

-N2. 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1869, 

By Geo. A. Leavitt, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for 
the Southern District of New York. 



E. 0. JENKINS, 

5TCRE0TYPER AND PRINTER, 

« N. WILLIAM ST., N. Y. 



I WANT to tell you all I can of the Life of 
Jesus Christ. 

No one can write s^o good a life of Him as 
that which we have in God's own Word. 

There, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, 
have set down just what they, or some near 
friend of theirs, saw Christ do and heard Him 

say. 

But men, from that time to this, have tried 
to find out all they could of His life, and of 
the land in which He dwelt. 

You will like, some day, to read the books 
in which they tell these things. But just now 
you can not spell long words, so I thought I 
would try to write out a life of Christ for you 

(5) 



IJ^TBODUCTIOJ^. 



in such short words that you could read it 
with your own eyes. 

It is more years than most of you can count 
since Christ was born, and He was still a young 
man when He died, and the land which was 
His home is far off from ours. Yet in spite 
of all this. His life has more to do with your 
life and mine to-day, than that of all oui 
^riends, the most near and dear. 

One thing more I want to say to you. Jesus 
Christ, though He was the Son of God, was 
the Son of man as well. He was once a flesh 
and blood boy, just like the boys who read this, 
and the same world in which we now live was 
His home. 

It may be you had no doubt of this, but I 
once knew a bright boy who had. He said 
one day, " You don't mean that Christ was in 
my world when they did those things to Him ! 
Why, I thought all that was done up in the 
sky!" 

No, it was not done up in the sky, but in 



IjYTBODUCTIOM, 



this world of ours, and the love and hate which 
were drawn forth by Christ's words and deeds, 
came out of just such hearts as ours. 

Tour grown up friends will know that I can 
not write a book in short words such as this is 
is to be, and not at times change the form of 
Christ's words more than I could wish. But 
I trust, with all my heart, that I may not lead 
you to false views of what He taught and what 
He did, and that this book will, at least, lift 
you up where you can catch one glimpse of 
Him, whom to know as He is, will be the task 
and the joy of all good hearts from age to age. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 

Proper names are, of course, unchanged in 
this book ; no other words of more than one 
syllable have been used, except " baptize '' 
(once), and "Father*' and "Holy Ghost'' 
(twice). These variations from the monosyl- 
labic rule seemed unavoidable. 




VIEW NEAK I, E J) A NUN. 



FROM 

THE CRIB TO THE CROSS 

A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



Once there was a young girl whose 
name was Mary. Her home was in 
a small town on the white hills of 
Galilee. 

Mary was poor, and not much 
known in the world, but God knew 
her, and chose her out of all that 
world to give birth to His Son. 

One day Gabriel flew down from 
God to Nazareth, where her home 
was, to bring Mary ihis good news. 
He told her, too, just when the child 
would be born, and what name she 
nmst give him. 



(9) 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



Mary's heart must have been full 
of strange thoughts, but all she said 
was, '' I am the Lord's maid ; let it 
be with me as He shall please." 

Then Gabriel flew back to God with 
this sweet, meek word from Mary, and 
no one in all the world knew that he 
had been here. 

There was no one in Nazareth to 
whom Mary could tell the glad news, 
but she went at once to see a near 
friend of hers, who was the wife of a 
priest far off in Hebron. She must 
have been four or five days on the way, 
but at the end of her long ride Mary 
found she had no need to tell the good 
news. As soon as Elizabeth (that was 
her friend's name) saw her come in at 
the door, she cried out with joy, and 
said, " What am I, that she who is to 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



give birth to my Lord, should come 
to me !" 

When she heard these words, Mary 
sang a grand hymn of praise, and her 
song is still sung in the Church, and 
you may have heard it there. 

Mary staid with her friend three 
months, and then went back to Naza- 
reth. She had not been gone long 
when Elizabeth s son John was born. 
We shall hear more of him by and 
by, and what he thought of Marys 
son when they both grew to be men. 

There was a good man in Naza- 
reth, whose name was Joseph, and 
Mary had said that she would be his 
wife. Joseph had a dream one night, 
in which God told him all that had 
been said to Mary, and bade him take 
her home to live with him, and v/hen 



TEE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



her child should be born, call his name 
Jesus. lit the Jews' tongue, Jesus 
means one who saves. So Joseph did 
as Goci bade him. 

Now it came to pass in those days, 
that a law was made that all the Jews 
should have their names put down on 
the roll which was to be sent to Rome 
for great Caesar, the king of all the 
world, to see. 

The Jews were not free then, but 
the slaves of Rome. 

Joseph had to go a long way to give 
in his name. He went to his own 
town, which was four score miles from 
Nazareth. 

He was poor, like Mary, but he 
was of high birth. In fact, he may 
have been the true heir to the throne, 
for he was of King Davids race, and 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 13 

Bethlehem was Davids home, you 
know. So to Bethlehem Joseph went, 
and as Mary seems to have had no 
friends but this brave, kind man, she 
did not like to be left at home, but 
took the long ride with him. 

There was such a great crowd in 
the small town of Bethlehem, that by 
the time Joseph and Mary got there 
the inn was full. They were glad to 
lay their heads in the place where the 
beasts were kept. It was in what we 
should call the barn of the inn, that 
they found rest. It may be that this 
barn was a cave in the rocks. Men 
in that land like to save work, and so 
they are quite apt to take a cave for 
one room, and build their house in 
front of it. They do not keep their 
beasts so far from them as we do. 



14 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

In this cave, or shed, the Christ 
child was born that niQ^ht. In the 
East, they do not dress a babe in long 
robes, but take long bands of cloth, 
half a foot wide, and wind them round 
and round him from his neck to his 
feet. Mary put such bands as these 
on her child, and laid him in his crib. 
Do you know what sort of a crib he 
had ? It was just the rock, or stone 
trough out of which the beasts ate ! 
Joseph and Mary made it as soft as 
they could with hay and straw, but at 
the best, what a bed it was to lay such 
a child in ! I must now tell you who 
first came to see Jesus, and how they 
knew that such a child had been born. 

In that land great flocks of sheep 
were kept at that time. They did not 
fence their fields as we do, so that men 



J. LIFE OF CHRIST. 15 

had to watch their flocks all night, that 
no sheep might stray off, nor be caught 
by wild beasts which came out at night 
to prowl for food. 

It was in these fields of Bethlehem 
that young David took care of his 
sheep. Here it was 'that he did that 
brave deed of which he told King 
Saul. Here he slew two wild beasts, 
the king of beasts and a bear. 

'' He came and took a lamb out of 
the flock," said he, '' and I went out 
and smote him to save it out of his 
mouth. I caught him by his beard, 
and smote him and slew him." 

He slew both these beasts when he 
was a boy in these fields. But long, 
long years have gone by, and in those 
fields men still watch their flocks. 

Who they were we do not know, 



i6 THE CRIB TO TEE CROSS. 

but all at once they saw a grand sight, 
such as all the kings on earth would 
have been proud to have seen, if God 
had let them. But God is apt to show 
His best things to a child, or to those 
souls that are most like a child. He 
gave these men who kept their sheep 
on the hills, a glimpse of His own 
brio^ht hosts on their march throuorh 
the sky, and let them hear a song 
from His own choir ! 

Though the birth of Jesus made 
no stir at all on this poor earth which 
He came to bless, yet all the great 
world on high was full of light, and 
joy, and song, in praise of the new 
born king. When this light from on 
high first shone on the men, they were 
full of fear, it was so bright and strange. 
But a voice soon said to them, '' Fear 



.i LIFE OF CHRIST. 17 

not ! I bring you good news of great 
joy, which shall be to all the world. 
To you is born this day, in David s 
town, Jesus, which is Christ the 
Lord!" 

Then when they had been told 
where this child could be found, they 
saw all at once that the sky was full 
of the hosts of God, and they heard 
them sing : 

" Praise to God the Most High ! 
On earth peace, good will to men !" 

But this bright scene soon went by, 
and the men were left with their sheep, 
to think of all that they had seen and 
heard. 

They did not think long, but soon 
rose, and said, " Let us now go to 
Bethlehem and see the thing which 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



has come to pass which the Lord hath 
made known to us." 

Now they knew that Gods own 
Son had come down to the earth to 
seek and save His lost sheep (that is 
what God's book calls us all), they did 
not care so much for their flocks. They 
left them there on the hills with the 
stars to watch them, and went straight 
to that crib in Bethlehem. There they 
found all things as they had been told 
they should. The babe, and Mary, 
and Joseph, the men from the fields 
and the beasts of the stall ! 

Men have tried and tried to paint 
that group from that age to this, but 
though they do their best, they can not 
show us just how grand it must have 
been. In the sketch which I like best, 
there is no light at all in the rough 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. ig 

cave, but that which shines in the eyes 
of the Christ child. But this light is 
so strong, that the men who have just 
come in from the fields can not bear 
its blaze, but shield their eyes from it. 
This light streams forth from the child's 
face and makes the poor hut more 
bright than a king's house. Its rays 
touch here the bare stone walls and 
the rough straw and hay, and change 
them to gold, and there the pure brow 
of Mary, the forms of the men from 
the fields who lean on their crooks, 
and the ox who looks down with mild 
eyes on the strange guest in his crib. 

It is not strange that these men, 
when they went out from such a scene 
as this, should have told all whom they 
met what they had seen in the sky and 
seen in the cave. But we do not hear 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



that the news made the least stir in the 
town. 

When the child Jesus was not quite 
six weeks old he went to Jerusalem. 

It was a law with the Jews that 
each boy that was born should go to 
the Lord's House at that age. 

The rich took a lamb with them 
and gave it to the priest. Mary and 
Joseph were too poor to own a lamb, 
so they took two doves for their gift. 

When Joseph and Mary came in 
to the house of the Lord, they found 
there an old man whose name was 
Simeon. He had been told that he 
should not die till he had seen '' the 
Lord's Christ." God had led him 
there that day to meet this child from 
Bethlehem, and he knew at once when 
he saw him that this was the Lord's 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



Christ. How must Mary have felt 
when this wise old man, whom all 
knew to be one who could see things 
which were yet to come, took her babe 
in his arms and broke out in a grand 
song of praise to God ! His next act 
was to bless Joseph and Mary. To 
Mary he spoke some strange, sweet 
words, for her to think of all her life. 
But he told her, too, that grief as well 
as joy, should come to her through 
this child ; ''A sword shall pierce 
through thy own soul !" She felt that 
sword when that dear head, which now 
lay on old Simeon s breast, was made 
to wear the crown of thorns but a few 
years from that time. But when Sim- 
eon had said these words, there came 
in one who, like him, was well known 
in all Jerusalem. Her name was 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



Anna, and she, too, saw the child, and 
gave thanks to God, and told the glad 
news of his birth to all whom she 
knew had hope that He who was to 
save them would soon come. Then 
the three went back to Bethlehem, 
where they soon had strange guests. 

When Christ was born in Bethle- 
hem, the sky told the glad news to 
more than those Jews who kept watch 
of their flocks near the inn. 

Far off, in a strange land, there 
were wise men who knew much of 
the worlds which fill the sky with their 
light, and read the stars as if they had 
been books. 

They had read, too, in an old scroll, 
that a wise man of an age long past 
had said that A Star should come 
out of Jacob, and bring great things 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 23 

to those on whom it should shine. 
So their eyes swept the skies each 
night in the hope they could catch 
sight of this Star, whose time they 
were sure must be near at hand. 
And one night it came ! There it 
was, new and bright, as it had just 
come from Gods hand to point with 
its rays straight to the far off place 
where the Christ child lay. Then 
they were sure that the King of the 
Jews must have come, and were full 
of joy, and made haste to get choice 
gifts and go and lay them at His feet. 
The gifts they took with them were 
such as men give to kings ; they were 
gold, and myrrh, and rare drugs. 

On they came with their train of 
men and beasts, all the way from Per- 
sia or Arabia to Jerusalem. When 



24 THE CRIB TO TEE CROSS. 

at last they came to the great town, 
they thought they should find it full 
of joy that the Christ had come. But 
they could find no one there who knew 
that such a child had been born ! 

How strange it must have been to 
the wise men to see these Jews rush 
to and fro through the streets, full of 
their small cares and joys, but with 
no thought of Him whom God had 
sent to save them ! 

But it was not small faith which had 
brought these men so far, and so they 
did not give up their search when they 
found that the rest of the world had 
no thouQ^ht or care that the true Kinof 
of the Jews had come. They made 
such a stir in the town, as they went 
here and there to ask the same thing, 
" Where is He that is born Kino: of 



A LIFE OF CHRIST, 25 

the Jews, for we have seen His star in 
the East, and have come to bow down 
to Him," that the news found its way 
to the king on the throne. 

Now at last the wise men had found 
some one who had an ear for their 
strange tale. But Herod was not glad 
when he heard it, but full of fear. 
False Jew and vain man that he was, 
he did not like to hear of a new born 
king, for he thought he should have 
to give up his throne. Christ did not 
want that poor mean throne of Herod 
with all its blood stains ; He came to 
reign in the heart of each child of man 
in all the wide world, and His reign 
•was to have no end. But Herod was 
too bad and dull to take in such a 
grand plan as this ; so he made a vile 
plan of his own. 



26 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

He sent in haste to call all the chief 
priests and scribes to meet, and search 
the old books, and tell him where the 
Christ should be born. From the 
time of the first man till now, the 
world had known that Christ would 
come at. some time, but Herod was 
not sure where he would choose his 
birth place. He did not have to wait 
long. The chief priests and scribes 
told him that Christ was to be born in 
Bethlehem. " Out of Bethlehem shall 
come He who shall rule Israel !" 

The words were as plain as could 
be, and did not put the old king s fears 
to rest at all. 

He next sent, by stealth, for the 
wise men from the East, that he might 
find out just when they had seen the 
Star. Then he made a great show of 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 27 

zeal that Christ should be found. He 
bade them go to Bethlehem, five or six 
miles from town, and search for '' the 
young child, and when ye have found 
him, bring me word, that I, too, may 
come and bow down to him !" 

The wise men were not so wise 
that they could read the hearts of 
men, so they thought Herod spoke 
the truth. They went out from the 
false king with glad hearts, and made 
their way to Bethlehem. 

I have heard an old tale, which may 
or may not be true. Here it is : 

The wise men, with their train of 
slaves and beasts, cross the plain and 
climb the hills till they reach the gate 
of Bethlehem. While they are in 
doubt which way to turn next, they 
halt by a well to rest. As they stoop 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



to draw from the well, a flash of light 
comes from its depths ! They look 
up with joy, and see just in front of 
them that same bright Star which they 
had seen in their far off home at the 
East! 

As I said, this may not. be true, but 
there is a well there at the gate, and I 
can tell you a true tale of it. 

When David was a man of war, 
the great host of his foes were once in 
Bethlehem, and he and his men of war 
were hid in the rocks near the town. 
David must have been home sick, I 
think, for all at once he cried out, '' O 
that one would give me drink from the 
well of Bethlehem which is by the 
gate !" His three chief braves heard 
of this wish of David, and at the risk 
of their life broke through the host of 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



29 



their foes to the well, and then made 
their way back to the rocks with their 
prize ! But David would not drink it, 
when they brought him the draught. 
He said it cost too much for him to 
drink, so he gave it to the Lord. 

It is quite true, too, that the wise 
men had to pass by this well, and that 
they saw the Star once more as they 
had seen it in the East. Matthew 
speaks of the great joy with which 
they saw it, and tells us how it led 
them on till at last it stood still, and 
sent its rays down on the place where 
Jesus, and Mary, and Joseph had their 
home. They had found what they had 
sought through long days of toil and 
care. Who can guess how glad they 
were ? 

They made their way in where the 



30 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

young child was, and fell at his feet. 
When they had done this, their slaves 
brought in the rich store of gifts and 
they laid all at the babe s feet where 
they had just knelt. 

The love which had brought them 
so far to see him, must have been 
worth more to Christ than the best 
gifts they had brought. 

The home He had just left is more 
grand than tongue can tell. The gates 
are pearls, and the streets gold, and the 
air is full of sweet sounds and scents, 
such as are not known by name on 
earth. But Jesus knew that this red 
gold and the sweets of Arabia, which 
the wise men gave Him, meant love 
and praise. So we may be sure that 
His smiles made them glad they had 
sought Him out, and brought their best 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 31 

to Him. The last we hear of them 
is, that God sent them a dream to warn 
them how false King Herod was. So 
they went home by a new way. 

Do you not think that the thought 
of the dear face of the child, as His 
eyes fell on them and their gifts, must 
have made their way home more bright 
than the star had made their road to 
Bethlehem ? 

But Jesus had now a long ride to 
take. When the wise men were gone, 
Joseph, too, had a dream. In it God 
spoke to him, and bade him take Jesus 
and Mary, and flee to the land of 
Egypt, and stay there till he should 
be told it was safe to bring them back. 
He told him, too, that this child who 
had such strange guests, and of whom 
such grand things had been said as 



32 A CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

he lay in old Simeon's arms, had a 
strong foe. Jesus had been heard of 
in the kings house, and the bad old 
man, whose hands were red with 
blood, meant to get this heir to the 
throne of David out of the way. 

When Herod found that it was of 
no use to watch the road from Bethle- 
hem more, for the wise men had gone 
home, and left him in the dark as to 
what they had seen there, he was mad 
with fear and rage. 

There was no star to point out to 
him the house in which Jesus was, 
but do you know what he did to 
make sure that the young king should 
be put to death ? He had all the 
boys in Bethlehem, who were not yet 
two years old, slain ! It has l)ecn said 
that Herod was such a fiend in his 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 33 

fear lest the new born King should 
rob him of his throne, that he had his 
own boy put to death, too, lest he might 
prove to be the Christ ! 

But through Joseph's care, Mary 
and her child were safe in Egypt 
while so much blood was shed in 
Bethlehem. They had to flee by 
night, lest Herod s men of war should 
track them, and kill the Prince of Life. 

They had to stay in that strange 
land for some months, so the gold 
which the wise men had left with 
them must have been of great use 
to them. 

But King Herod died at last, and 
left his throne to his three sons. 

Once more God spoke to Joseph 
in a dream, and said, *' Rise, and take 
the young child and Mary and go to 



34 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

the land of Israel, for they are dead * 
who sought the young child's life." 

So back they went to their own land. 
But the first thing which Joseph heard 
when they got there, was such bad 
news, that he felt it would not be safe 
to take the child to Bethlehem. Herod 
was dead to be sure, but one of his 
sons now had rule in that part of the 
land, and the first act of this son s 
reign had been to kill a vast crowd of 
men who did not please him. So Jo- 
seph took Jesus to the north, to that 
town on the hills where Mary and he 
had their first home. 

Just one short verse tells us all we 
can know of the next ten years of 
Christ's life. We learn from it that 
He grew in size ; that he grew more 
and more wise ; and that tlie grace of 



.d LIFE OF CHRIST. 35 

God was on Him. I have read in 
old books some things which men 
have thought Jesus must have done 
when he was a child. But some of 
these things are so false to all that we 
know of the meek, pure Jesus, that we 
can not trust those which seem as if 
they might have been true. 

We know that Nazareth was not a 
large town, and that all who dwelt 
there must have seen this boy as he 
w^ent up and down the steep streets, 
or was at work with Joseph in his 
shop, or went with Mary to the well. 
He must have had stfange thoughts 
in his mind of what was to come to 
him and be done by him in the years ; 
and thosQ who went to school with 
him, or could play with him from time 
to time, must have found him a brave, 



36 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

true, sweet mate ; but we do not learn 
from God's word that he was thought 
of as not just like all the rest of the 
boys of the toAvn. 

The next time we hear of Christ is 
in God's own Book, he is twelve years 
old, and has gone to Jerusalem, which 
is three score and ten miles from his 
home — a score is twice ten, you know. 
Spring had come, and with it the great 
Feast of the year. 

To all boys who were born Jews it 
must have been a orrand thins: to come 
of age, so that they, too, could go to 
the Feast and take their place with the 
men. It was the law that they should 
do this when thev were twelve years 
old. 

You know there were no cars in 
those days. Not a coach, or a chaise, 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 37 

or a cart, or the least thing to ride in 
was known on those hills. There was 
not a ro^fd in all the land like ours. 
At the best, these were mere paths 
where the mule, with its sure foot, 
could tread, and the men and boys 
pick their way. 

Then there were swarms of thieves, 
who hid in the rocks, to pounce on all 
who went by, if they were so few that 
it was safe to rob them. 

So when the time drew near to go 
to the Feast, the Jews would make 
up large trains of friends and town s 
men, so that all might be safe. 

You can see that the mere trip to 
Jerusalem must have been a great 
treat to a boy, not at all like our hum 
drum rides in the cars. There would 
be the ride on the mule, part of the 



38 THE CRIB TO TEE CllOSS. 

way, in the Spring, when all things 
were fresh, and green, and in sweet 
bloom. There would be the brisk 
run on the smooth plain with play 
mates from home, or friends who 
dwelt so far off that this would be 
the one time in the year to meet them. 
There would be the climb up the steep 
rocks, with the chance, at each turn, 
that a band of thieves might spring 
out on the train and rob them, or put 
them to rout. A bold, brave boy, 
might have half a hope and half a fear 
that he might see such a sight. 

Then at night there would be the 
camp by the side of the road, or in 
the yard of some lone inn. The boys 
would help lift the loads from the backs 
of the mules, and make the beasts fast 
to stakes, so they could not stray. The 



.1 LIFE OF CHRIST. 



39 



bright fires would soon blaze on all 
sides, at which to cook the food they 
had brought from home. When the 
meal was done, there would be the 
gay chat and songs of the groups 
here and there. 

Then when all were laid down to 
rest, a strange hush would come on all 
things, the camp fires would die out, and 
the stars shine out one by one. Then 
the boy would lie and gaze at the 
bright roof of his strange bed room, 
with its blue and gold, and now and 
then a soft white cloud to veil it, till 
his eyes would close in sleep. 

At dawn the din of the crowd 
would wake him, as they broke camp, 
and made haste to set out on their way 
ere the hot sun rose. Then as they 
went on, the train would chant some 



40 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

grand old psalm like that which 
says : 



" I was glad when they said to me, 
Let us go to the House of the Lord !" 

At last the great town would come 
in view, and what a sight it must have 
been to a boy who had heard of what 
God had done for his race, and how 
rich and grand this chief town had 
been made ! All boys in that land 
would hear this tale as soon as they 
could speak. They did not have piles 
of books as you do, but got all their 
tales from the lips of their friends and 
the wise men who sat at the gates. 
There was but one theme to all these 
tales, and that was what a grand race 
were the Jews ; how brave in time of 



,d LIFE OF CHBIST. 41 

war, how rich In time of peace, and 
how dear to the heart of God ! 

But the chief sight of all the town 
was the House of God. It was built 
on a high hill. The whole great pile 
was half a mile square. Think of a 
church as larg^e as that ! Six or eio^ht 
times the size of your church and 
mine. It was built of pure white 
stone. Round it was a wall one 
score and five feet high ; a long flight 
of steps led up to it ; and there were 
nine great gates by which you could 
pass in. These gates were more than 
two score feet high, and half as wide, 
and shone with white and gold. 

Then as the train wound In through 
the gates of the town, what joy there 
must have been to a boy from the hills, 
in all the strange, new sights of the 



42 TIIK CRIB TO THE CJIOSS. 

streets. The streets were not wide, 
and the throng would be so great, it 
would be hard to get through, but that 
would give all the more zest. Such 
crowds went to Jerusalem at the time 
of this Feast, that the town could not 
hold them, though each man who 
dwelt there made his house free to 
those who came. 

Not a few of the trains w^ould have 
to camp out on the hills, as near the 
gate as they could find room. 

As soon as the train had found a 
place to camp, all things would be put 
in trim for a week's stay, and rooms 
found where they could keep the great 
Feast. The law was, that not a bit 
of the lamb (which made the chief 
part of the feast) should be left. In 
the case of a small house like Jo- 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 43 

seph's, a lamb would be quite too 
much for one meal, so the law bade 
ten or more friends club for the Feast. 
They would choose one to be at the 
head and to take care that all things 
were done as they should be. This 
chief, as we will call him, had to take 
the live lamb on his back, and go up 
to the House of God with it. This 
must be done just at sun set. 

When the chief had slain the lamb, 
it had to pass through the hands of 
three priests, who kept the fat and the 
blood. 

Then the chief took it back to his 
club, and it was put on spits, in the 
form of a cross, to roast, and the law 
was most strict that they should not 
break a bone of it. 

That night, as soon as the lamb 



44 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

was done, they all sat down to the 
great Feast of the week. 

First the chief said grace, and a 
course of herbs, etc., came on. Next 
the lamb was brought in, and at this 
point, the boys who came to the Feast 
had a part to play, more* than to help 
make way with the food. 

They were to turn to the chief of 
the Feast, and say, '' What mean these 
things, sir ? Why do we eat these dry, 
thin cakes, and these herbs of Egypt ? 
Why must the lamb be slain in God s 
own House, and with such care that 
not a bone should break ?" 

Then the chief would tell the old 
tale of the dark days of their race. 
How Jacob and his sons had been 
near death in their own land for want 
of food, when God made their crops 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 45 

fail. How they had gone down to 
Egypt to buy corn, and found their 
own Joseph there, whom they had 
sold to be a slave, but who had now 
come to be a great man, next to the 
king in might. How they had all 
made that land their home. 

But by and by, when long years 
had past, a new king had come to the 
throne, who had not known Joseph at 
all, and did not care for what he had 
done for Egypt. This king did not 
like these Jews who grew strong and 
rich so fast. He had his fears that 
they would soon own all the land, and 
drive out the old race who dwelt there. 
So he made haste and bound them as 
slaves. They had to work hard, and 
bear great wrongs for long years, till 
God sent Moses to help them. 



46 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

Then the chief would tell the boys 
of the ten plagues which God sent on 
the king and all his land, to make him 
let go his hold on the Jews. You 
know what these plagues were, and 
the last of them was the cause of that 
Feast which they were now met to 
keep. 

In one night the first born son in 
each house was put to death. The 
Jews were not hurt by this plague. 
God bade each house of all their tribes 
take a lamb, kill it at sun set, roast it, 
and eat it that same night. But they 
were first to take some of its blood, 
and mark the posts of their doors, so 
that when Death should go up and 
down the streets to slay God's foes, he 
should know that where those blood 
stains were on the doors, there dwelt 



.1 LIFE OF CHRIST. 47 

those who were the friends of God, 
and spare them. 

That night there was a great cry in 
Egypt, for there was not a house (save 
the homes of the Jews) where there 
was not one dead. 

But the Jews were then set free, and 
led forth by Moses to the good land, 
and had kept this Feast from year to 
year, as God bade them, from that 
time to this. 

And then the chief might tell the 
boys that though they were now once 
more in bonds to a strange race, yet 
the Christ of God would one day come 
and break the yoke off their necks, 
and sit on the throne of David ; and 
that it might be that some who sat 
there would live to see his face in the 
flesh! 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



We should all like to know if at 
this Feast in the spring of a.d. 8 (a.d. 
stands for '' the year of our Lord "), 
it fell to the lot of Jesus to ask the 
chief of their club, " What mean these 
things, sir T 

How much more that boy could 
have told those who sat there, than 
the chief could tell him ! How much 
more of what God had done in times 
past for the Jews, and most of all, of 
what He meant to do for the Jews 
and all the world, by means of His 
Son who sat with them there ! What 
a thrill it would have sent throuirh 
them all if the King who was to set 
them free, and who sat there a child 
in the midst of them, had said, '' I 
who speak to you am He !" 

But it seems that the Feast went 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 49 

by with no such words from the Boy 
of Nazareth. His time had not yet 
come. 

The w^eek of good cheer, and song, 
and joy, came to an end, and then the 
train set out for home. 

Mary and Joseph did not see Jesus 
as they went out through the gate of 
the town. But this did not vex them 
in the least. He was not a boy whom 
they had to watch lest he should go 
wrong. They could trust him out of 
their sight. He had won the love of 
all w^ho knew him, and they thought 
he had gone on with some of his 
mates or their kin. 

So they had no thought of care till 
they had got to the end of the first 
day's stage. It was night now, and 
Marys heart could not rest till she 



50 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

had seen with her own eyes that her 
boy was well fed; and had a nice place 
to sleep. So she and Joseph sought 
him on all sides. But he was to be 
found with none of the groups, and no 
one had the least news to tell of him. 

It was plain that Jesus had not left 
town at all, so back they had to go in 
search of him. 

How they came to look for him in 
Gods House at last, is more than we 
know, but there they found him on the 
third day from the close of the feast. 
He was in one of the courts where the 
wise men of the Jews were wont to 
meet to talk of the deep things of their 
law. The pair who have sought him 
so long, see a group of the great men 
of Jerusalem, here a judge, there a 
priest, and there a scribe, with long 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 51 

gray beards and grave brows, and keen 
eyes all bent on the bright young face 
of their lost child ! There he sits, not 
bold and rude, but with all the ease 
of a dear child in his own home, and 
hears what these wise men have to 
say, and speaks such words to them 
as stir their minds to the depths. 

Who shall say that Mary did not, 
at that hour, feel the first prick of the 
sword v/hich old Simeon had told her 
should one day pierce through her own 
heart ? There sits her child, and yet 
not her child. There is a far off look 
in his eyes, and strange words are on 
his lips. Can it be that the still life of 
that home at Nazareth, so dear to 
Mary, and so dear to him till now, is 
at an end ? 

Half wild with grief, and worn out 



52 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS, 

by long search for him, Mary breaks 
in on the hush of that awe struck 
group with a cry wrung from her heart 
of hearts, '' Son ! why hast thou dealt 
thus with us! Lo, we have sought 
thee with sad hearts." 

To this the child said, '' How is it 
that you sought me ? Did you not 
know that I must do my Fathers 
work (or be in my Father s House) ?" 

As if he had said, '' Where should 
the son of God be at home but in 
Gods own 'House ?" 

But his time had not yet come, so 
he rose and left the group of wise men 
and went out with Joseph and Mary, 
and back to Nazareth. 

There he dwelt with them for years. 
The* Jews taught all their boys, rich 
or poor, a trade. Jesus learnt his 



A LIFE OF CUEIST. 



53 



trade at Joseph's bench, where he 
made ploughs and yokes of wood. 

I read not long since of a poor lame 
dwarf, whose trade it was to make toys. 
He said to a friend who came to see 
him at his work, that though God's 
word did not tell us so, yet it did him . 
good to think that Jesus' love for the 
young was shown in the same way 
with his own. That Jesus as he stood 
at the bench at work, or to watch Jo- 
seph's work, was sure to save all the 
chips and make toys out of them for 
some poor child, who would have had 
no toy but for him, and who stood at 
the door to wait for it with shy glad 
eyes ! I like to think so, too, and it is 
far more like what we know of Jesus, 
the man, than most of the made up 
tales which. are told of Jesus, the child, 



54 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

in the old books. We may be sure 
that he who took such pains to clasp 
the dear babes in his arms when he 
was a man, worn out with toil, had 
not let slip in all his life the least 
chance to be kind to them. So, 
though God does not choose to tell 
us much of those years of Christ's 
youth, yet we are sure to be right if 
we think of him as rich in kind deeds 
and words to all who came near him, 
through them all. 

But now we come to the true tale 
of the last three years of Christ's life. 

There was a man near of kin to 
Jesus, whose name was John. He 
was the son of that Elizabeth whom, 
as I told you, Mary went to see as 
soon as Gabriel, who brought her the 
good news, had left her. 



A LIFE OF CHFvIST. 55 

We know still less of John s youth 
than of that of Jesus. 

All that IS said of him in Gods 
Word is, that he grew, and grew 
strong of soul, and did not live in the 
town, but out in the free wilds, till the 
day when he made known that he was 
sent by God to clear a path for the feet 
of His Son Jesus. But now it is a.d. 
26, and John is one score and ten 
years old, and the news spreads more 
and more that he is a great man. 
Crowds go out to find him, and see 
what new thing he will say to them. 

They find a rough, strong man with 
long hair and beard, which have not 
been cut in all his life. His dress 
is a long robe of cloth, which was 
made out of hair, not soft like lamb s 
wool, but harsh and coarse, and tied 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



at the waist by a strip of skin. His 
food is what the wilds can give him. 
, It is the sweet comb which the bees 
hide for him in clefts of the rocks and 
holes in the trees, and a sort of bug 
which men still eat, at times, in that 
land. When he stands up to preach 
with his strange dress, and his long 
locks which float in the wind, and his 
sharp, stern words, all quail. He had 
no soft words for rich or poor. He 
brought the sin of each home to all 
who heard him, and bade each turn 
at once, and do right where he had 
done wrong. He put his hand right 
'on the sin that was most dear to them. 
But there was a wild sort of charm 
in his looks and bold. speech, so that 
a great crowd, when they had heard 
him, went to him to have him baptize 




PREACHING OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. 



,d LIFE OF CHRIST. 57 

them at the Jordan, near which he now 
stood. He made use of this rite as a 
sign that those who came to him for it 
must have a chancre of heart and life. 
Not a few who heard him thought he 
must be the Christ. But he would 
not let them think this of him at all. 
He said, '' I am not the Christ, but am 
sent first to clear the way for the Christ. 
I am not fit to loose Christ's shoe from 
his foot." 

One day, as he stood at the ford of 
Jordan, a young man came with the 
crowd to hear him preach. His dress 
was like that of the rest of the young 
men, and he made no more claim than 
the rest. But John saw him at once, 
and knew him to be he of whom he 
spake. 

He was of his kin to be sure, but 



58 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

Christ's home had been In the town 
all these years, and John's had been 
in the wilds, and though they may 
have met at some of the feasts in 
Jerusalem, yet their homes w^ere not 
near. 

But John had heard, when a young 
child, the strange tale of Gabriel's words 
to Mary ; of Elizabeth's faith that Ma- 
ry's son was her Lord and the world s 
Lord ; and of the men who left their 
sheep to go and bow down in the cave 
at the babe's feet, and the wise men, 
who came next ; and of old Simeon's 
cry of joy as he held the babe in his 
arms, and Anna's good news, which 
she told all whose hopes were set on 
the Christ. 

John had known that Christ would 
be made known some day. That 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 59 

he was hid through such long years 
would not shake John's faith in the 
least. They did not live so fast then 
as we do. .Boys did not rush from 
the boy s life to the man s life, in such 
mad haste as now. The Jews would 
not have thought a man whose years 
were less than one score and ten, fit 
at all to preach, or do a great work in 
the world. 

But John, as well as Jesus, when 
once he set out on his lifes work, did 
it with all his might. Johns time of 
work was but for a few months, but 
how much he did ! And Christ's 
great work, which was to save a world, 
was all done in three short years ! 

But as I said, John saw Christ, and 
knew that his time was come. He 
was so sure of this, that when Christ 



6o THE CRIB TO THE CIWSS. 

came to him for the same rite which 
the throng take from his hands, he 
drew back. 

" No," he said ; '' who am I that I 
should do such a thing ? I have need 
to take this rite from thee/' 

But Christ bids him do what he 
asks at his hands, and John minds him 
at once. Now, once more the world 
on high, as at Christ's birth, takes heed 
of what is done on earth. As Jesus, 
comes up out of Jordan, the veil is 
drawn back which hides that bright 
world, and a pure white dove floats 
down and rests on his head, while a 
voice, which all knew must be that of 
God, breaks in on the still scene, and 
says : '' This is 1113^ dear Son !" 

Next came a scene far more strange 
than that we have just left on the 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 61 

banks of the Jordan. I shall not, of 
course, try to tell you all that It meant. 
You and I will both know more of 
what Christ went through in the next 
month s tirne, by and by. The best I 
can do is to tell you, in a few words, 
what I think it meant. 

God s word says that Christ went 
right to the wilds when he left John. 
There he staid for two score days and 
two score nights, with the wild beasts, 
as Mark says^ and with no food. 

At first his mind must have been 
so full of plans for his great task, and 
with thoughts of all that he must do 
and bear, and all the pain he must 
bring to the hearts of those to whom 
he was dear, that he would not feel 
the want of food. But at last this 
weak flesh of ours, which he wore as 



62 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

well as you and I, with just the same 
wants which you and I feel each hour 
of our lives, grew faint, and cried out 
for food. At this point Satan, who 
has been on the watch all the time, 
thinks his chance has come, so he 
creeps up to the faint, worn man who 
lies there on the bare rocks, which 
yield not so much as a place for the 
bees to hide their sweets. 

" If you are the Son of God, as 
you have thought you were all the 
days you have been out here, just 
turn some of these stones to bread." 

Jesus is not so weak that he does 
not know at once who it is who 
speaks. In '' The Pilgrim s Pro- 
gress," you know, poor Christian goes 
through the Shadow of Death, and if 
you will read the sad tale of all he 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 63 

had to meet there, it may help you to 
guess at a small part of what Christ 
bore at this time. But when the 
fiends crept up to Christian to hiss 
bad things in his ear, the poor man 
did not know who spoke to him. 
He thouo^ht the bad thino^s came out 
of his own heart, and this made them 
ten times more hard to bear. 

But Jesus had not one sin in his 
heart, so he knew that the voice could 
not come from there ; and it could not 
come from God, for God had not sent 
his Son down to this world to make 
bread, or use his might at all for his 
own wants. So Christ turns at once on 
Satan with a sharp dart out of God s 
Word. Man is more than flesh, and 
so mere bread will not give him the 
strength he wants. He is a soul, and 



64 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

must be fed by all God's words, or he 
will starve. We hear no more as to 
Christ's want of food. Satan's thrust 
seems to rouse him to full life and 
strength, of flesh as well as soul. 
But Satan tries once more. 

'' If you will not use your might to 
feed your own weak flesh, use it to 
make the world stare, and show them 
at once how great you are. Go back 
to Jerusalem, and jump from the top 
of that spire of God's house which is 
most high in the air. Jump right 
down in the midst of the great crowd 
which throng the courts, and as they 
see you still live, they will know you 
are God's own Son ; as all your plan 
to preach, and work cures from town 
to town, will not make them know it." 

And this time Satan thought he 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 65 

would quote God's word first, so he 
adds, '' You know it is said He shall 
give His hosts charge to keep thee, 
and in their hands they shall bear thee 
up, lest thou dash thy foot on a stone !" 
" It is said, ' Thou shalt not tempt 
the Lord thy God !' " is all which 
Christ said, or had need to say, to 
turn this thrust. Then . Satan drew 
back, that he might bring all his force 
to bear on one last charge. He spreads 
out to Christ's viev/ the whole world. 
Then he speaks words which seem to 
mean this : You see in what a state 
all things are. Your own dear race 
are slaves now, but if you will bow 
down to me, and own that my rule is 
best ; take me for your guide, and use 
the same means with men that I do, 
you can raise your race and sit on the 



66 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

throne of the world, and draw all men 
to you. My way will give you a 
crown soon, and all the world at your 
feet ; your way will give you two or 
three years of toil and pain, and a 
cross and a tomb at the end. 

'' Get thee hence, Satan !" cries Je- 
sus, and Satan flies, to tempt him no 
more, and the hosts of God come to 
soothe and feed him who has borne 
so much. 

It was not quite six weeks from the 
day when Jesus had met John at the 
Jordan for the first time, that he went 
to him once more. As John saw him 
come, he cried to the throng w^ho were 
with him, '' This is the Lamb of God, 
who bears the sins of the world !'' 

Till this time John seems to have 
said sharp, strong things of the sins 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 67 

of all who heard him, and bade them 
oret rid of their sins at once. But now 
he sees in Christ, and bids all see in 
him, the one way by which a soul can 
be freed from its sins — '' the Lamb 
of God, who bears the sins of the 
world !'' 

John the Baptist was at the head 
of a sort of school. Not a few who 
came to hear him preach, would stop 
to be taught by him more and more, 
and spend all their time with him. The 
next day, as John stood with two of 
these friends with him, he spied Jesus 
as he went by, and said once more, 
'' This is the Lamb of God !" 

At this, these friends, whose names 
were John and Andrew, leave the side 
of John Baptist, and push on till they 
come so near Jesus that he hears their 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



steps. He turns and looks at them, 
and says, '' What seek ye ?" 

'' Lord, where dost thou dwell ?" 

'' Come and see/' 

So they go, and spend the night 
with him. Andrew was the son of 
Jonas ; and Jonas had one more son, 
of whom we shall hear much in times 
to come. His name was Simon Peter, 
and as soon as Andrew has found 
out where Christ dwells, he goes and 
finds Peter, and tells him the glad 
news, '' We have found the Christ !" 
and brings him to the place where they 
are to loclsfe with Jesus that nicrht. The 
next day Jesus and the three friends set 
out for a long walk, no less than three 
score miles long. On the way, Christ 
finds a new friend, whose name is 
Philip, and bids him go with him. 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 69 

He minds at once, and he learns so 
much of Jesus as he walks and talks 
with him on the way, that he, too, like 
Andrew, thinks of a dear friend whom 
he longs to bring to know and love 
him too, as the Christ of God. 

So as soon as they get to Cana, 
Philip goes in search of his old friend 
Nathanael, and tells him that he has 
found him who has been the theme of 
their talks and their hopes for so long 
a time. But when Nathanael hears 
that their new lord is a Nazareth man, 
he has not much faith in him. 

Nazareth has a bad name far and 
near, and Nathanael can't think that 
the true Christ would choose such a 
vile town for his home. But to please 
his friend he goes with him to take a 
look at his new Lord. Christ sees 



70 THE CUIB TO THE CROSS. 

the doubts in his heart as he comes 
near, and sweeps them all out with a 
few words. He proves that though 
he is Jesus of Nazareth, the son of 
Joseph, yet he is the Son of God as 
well. There is a fig tree near Cana 
where Nathanael goes to pray ; where 
he can see no one but God and his 
own heart, and no one but God can 
see him. But Jesus tells Nathanael 
that he had seen him as he knelt there 
in the shade of that fig tree. That he 
found him first, when Philip was still 
in search of him. He makes the proof 
so strong that Nathanaels faith leaps 
at once as high as Philip's, who has 
'spent three or four days with Christ, 
and he cries out in his joy, '' Thou 
art the Son of God ! Thou art the 
King of Israel !" 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 71 

So Christ has five friends with him 
now : the two sons of Jonas, Andrew 
and Peter ; John, the son of Zebedee ; 
Philip, who was from the same town 
with them, and Nathanael. 

Bar, means son, and Nathanael was 
the son of Tholomai ; so we know 
him by the name of Bar-tholemew. 

Peter, too, we hear of at times, by 
the name of Simon Bar-Jona, which 
means son of Jonas. 

It seems as if Christ took this Ions: 
walk up to Cana just to go to a bride s 
feast ! We do not know who the pair 
were. Some have thought that the 
groom was Christ's new friend, John, 
but there is no proof of this. 

Mary was at the feast, and seems 
to have had some charge of things 
which she would not have had as 



72 THE CllIB TO THE CROSS. 

just one of the guests. As the feast 
draws near to an end, the wine fails, 
and Mary goes at once to her Son in 
this strait. .She does not go to the 
chief of the feast who sits at the head 
of the board, and whose place it is to 
see that all things are done as they 
should be, but she goes to Jesus, who 
is a mere guest. '' They have no 
wineT she says. His words do not 
read to us as if there were much hope 
that he would help them in the case. 

" What have I to do with thee ? 
Mine hour is not yet come." 

But they must have had a tone which 
gave Mary hope, for she at once bids 
those who stand by to wait on the 
guests, go to Christ for what they 
need. When next they want wine, 
then, they go to Christ, and he points 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 73 

to the great jars which stand in the 
court yard, and bids them fill them to 
the brim. They do so, and then he 
bids them draw out from these full 
^jars, and take what they draw to the 
chief of the feast, who has not as yet 
found out that there is a want of 
wine. The men know that what they 
pour in the jars came out of the well, 
but what must they have thought 
when they draw out of the same jars 
bright, red wine ! They take it to the 
chief, and as soon as he tastes it, he 
calls the groom, and says, '' The way 
is to give good wine in the first part 
of a feast, and worse at the end ; but 
you have kept the good wine till now !'' 
It looks as if Christ did this deed 
just to please Mary, and save his host 
from the blame of scant fare at his 



74 TEE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

feast. But it must have made those 
five new friends of his feel that he was 
in truth the Son of God. 

At the end of this feast, Jesus went 
with Mary and Andrew and Peter to 
Capernaum, and staid there till spring 
came, and it was time for the same 
great feast to which he went when he 
was twelve years old. 

We have just seen Jesus a guest at 
a gay feast. He was there, and there 
to make the scene more bright and 
glad with his smiles. Now we shall 
see that he can frown as well. 

As he goes up the long flight of 
steps to God's House in Jerusalem, 
he hears strange sounds from the 
court which runs round the whole 
of it. This court is a sort of hall, 
broad and high, but it is part of the 



J. LIFE OF CHRIST. 75 

church. Here the scribes taught the 
law. This was the place where the 
Gentiles could come ; they could not 
go up the next flight of steps to the 
church ; but here they might stay and 
get what good they could from this 
'' court of the Lord s House." From 
this court Jesus does not hear the soft 
hum of those who pray, and those who 
teach, but rude sounds of trade, the 
cries of beasts, and the clink of coin. 

As he goes in a strange scene meets 
his eye. The pure floor, wrought in 
choice stones, is strewn with filth and 
straw. Beasts of all the sorts \Yhich 
the Jews might use when they went 
to pay their vows to God in His house 
(the ox, the sheep, the dove), are tied 
to the grand shafts of rare stone on 
which the roof rests, and low, and 



76 THE CRIB TO TEE CROSS. 

boa, and coo, on all sides. Men sit 
at desks and change the coin of Rome 
for that of the Jews, or take the price 
of some beast just sold. What would 
you think of suph sights and sounds 
in the porch and aisles of your church ? 
The Jews who came to this Feast 
from far off points, would wish to buy 
in Jerusalem their lamb or their doves ; 
but God's house was not the place to 
buy and sell in. 

Christ made a scourge of small cords, 
or of the reeds with which the floor was 
strewn, and drove them all out of the 
court and down the steps. Men and 
beasts all fled, not so much from fear 
of the small whip, as at the sight of 
Christ s stern face. He was Christ 
the King at that hour, and all quail 
at his frown. Then he pours out the 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. jj 

coin and throws down the desks, and 
says to those who had doves for sale, 
" Take these things hence ! make not 
my Father s House a place of trade !" 

All must have seen in him one 
who had a right to rule in Gods 
House. 

The Jews ask him^ to be sure, what 
sign he means to show next, now he 
has done such a bold act ; but no one 
seems to have tried to make a stand, 
or to have found fault with him at all. 

While Jesus is in Jerusalem at this 
time, he does show the crowds which 
flock to the feast not a few signs that 
prove to those who see them that he 
is sent from God, but we are not told 
what these signs were. But one thing 
we do know, these deeds brought him 
a new friend : a man of wealth and 



78 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

of high rank and a judge. His name 
was Nicodemus, and he came to see 
Jesus at night, for he had not yet so 
much faith that he would risk the 
scorn and wrath of his great friends, 
and go to see him in broad day light. 

Jesus does not find fault with him 
for this, but he gives him a plain talk. 

You must get some one to read you 
John iii., where you will find all which 
Jesus said to Nicodemus. Nicodemus 
went out from Christ's house that night 
a new man. He did not show the 
change at once, it may be, but he made 
it plain to all at last. Three years 
from this time, when it will be at far 
more risk that such a man can own 
Christ as his lord, Nicodemus will 
own him, as we shall see, in the broad 
light of day and at great cost. 



.1 LIFE OF CHRIST. j^ 

Jesus next went out through the 
towns of Judea with his friends to 
teach. John Baptist is at Enon with 
his school, and he and Jesus seem 
to work on, side by side, for a time. 
But some of Johns class are not 
much like John. They feel no joy, 
but spite, when they know how the 
crowds flock to hear Jesus, and try to 
stir up strife on this ground. 

When they come to John with their 
tale, how grand he seems as he speaks 
to them : '' Have I not told you all 
the time that I was not the Christ, but 
had come to make clear the path for 
Christ ? I told you that he on whom 
the Dove should rest was the Christ ; 
I have told you more than once that 
this man whom the throng seek, is the 
Lamb of God, who bears the sin of 



8o THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

the world. He must wax, but I must 
wane. Ke that has faith in him shall 
have that life which shall not end, and 
he who has not faith in him shall not 
see life, but the wrath of God rests on 
him.'' There was not a mean spot in 
this great, brave, true heart of John. 
He saw those who had felt such pride 
in him and clung to him for months, 
all at once leave his school and join 
that of this nev/ Lord, but no pang of 
hurt pride or grief seems to have found 
place in his good heart. . His work 
was for God and not for his own fame, 
and if God's work was to be done by 
God's own Son, he was proud to be 
known as his friend, and full of joy in 
the work. 

But Christ seems to have thouirht 
it best to leave Judca soon, and go 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 81 

back to his home up in Galilee. So- 
he said good bye to John Baptist, 
whose face he was not to see more 
till they should meet, in three years 
time, on high. 

As Christ and his friends are on 
their way, they reach, one day at noon, 
a place of which all Jews think a great 
deal. It is a well, said to have been 
dug by Jacob s own hands, near Sy- 
char, the chief town of Samaria. Je- 
sus was so tired by their long walk in 
the heat, that he sat down by the side 
of the well to rest, while his friends go 
through the gate of the town to buy 
food for them all. 

While he sits there a Samaritan 
comes up to the well with her jar on 
her head, and Christ ask her to let 
him drink from it. She does not know 



82 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. ■ 

what to make of this. She knows at 
once that he who speaks to her is a 
Jew, but why should he speak to her ? 
The Jews so hate and scorn the Sa- 
maritans, that much as they love trade, 
they will not trade with them, much 
less will they ask the least gift at their 
hands, and speak of them as " dogs." 
But here sits a young Jew who asks 
her to do a kind deed for him ! 

This seems so strange to her that 
she begs him to tell her why he should 
do such a thing. 

Jesus sits there to rest his worn out 
frame, but here is a dark soul sick 
with sin, which he can bless, so he 
tells her who he is and what he has 
come to do, not for the Jews, and for 
no one race, but for a world. He 
tells her that he can give her that 



A LIFE OF CEEIST. 



which will quench her thirst so she 
shall thirst no more. She does not 
know that he means the thirst of the 
soul, but sees in a dim way that he 
who speaks such strange words can 
not be a mere man. He proves this 
to her by his next words, so she has 
no doubt of its truth. He shows her 
that he knows all her past life as well 
as her own heart knows it. Then she 
owns him as sent of God, and he talks 
with her some time of the great truths 
of God. 

At last, when she has shown that 
she, too, though a Samaritan, looks for 
the Christ to come, and she says, " tell 
us all things," Jesus says, " I that 
speak to thee am he !" It is not strange 
that she should leave her jar at the 
well, and fly back to town, and say to 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



all whom she met, " Come and see a 
man who told me all things that I 
have done in all my life ! Is not this 
the Christ ?" 

When the friends of Jesus came 
back from town with the food they 
had bought, they beg him to eat. 

They know how faint and worn he 
was when they left him, but they come 
back to find him full of life and zeal, 
as he talks with one whom they would 
not speak to. He talks to her, too, in 
quite as frank and free a way as he 
would to them of the deep things of 
God. When she has gone, and they 
beg him to eat, he says, '' I have meat 
to eat that ye know not of," and as 
they are In doubt what these words 
can mean, he makes it plain to them 
that he speaks of meat for the best 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



part of man, the soul, as he adds : 
'' My meat is to do the will of Him 
who sent me, and bring His work in 
the world to an end." God's work in 
this world is to save men, and that is 
what Christ meant. 

A crowd soon pour out through the 
gate of the town to see this strange 
Jew, who can read the heart and past 
life of one whom he meets for the first 
time. 

Not a few who come to stare, stay 
to beg him to make his home with 
them, and say, this is in truth the 
Christ who shall save the world. But 
he could give but two days to them, 
and then he must push on up to Cana. 

At Capernaum, which is so far from 
Cana that it takes six or eight hours 
to go there, dwelt a man of high rank 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



in the court of the king. He had 
heard of that bride's feast some weeks 
since, when Christ had made wine 
flow in such a free way for the guests, 
and had heard, too, of the deeds he 
had wrought while in Jerusalem at 
the feast. His son lies at the point 
of death, and as soon as he hears 
that Jesus has come back to Cana, 
he starts at once to find him, and 
bring him back with him, that he may 
heal his son. 

He has so much faith as to think 
that Christ can cure his son if he can 
get him to go to his house, but. he 
learns that his might is more than the 
skill of a wise leech. The great man 
of Capernaum says to the poor man of 
Cana, " Sir, come down ere my child 
die !" But the poor man, who does 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 87 

not stir a step from the place where 
the great man found him, says, with 
the air of a king, '' Go thy way ; thy 
son lives." And he has a right to 
speak like a king, for he is the King 
of Life. 

The great man seems to have had 
such sure faith in Christ's word, that 
he does not make haste home, for he 
is sure all is right there, We hear 
of him as on his way back the next 
day, when he meets some who have 
been sent to tell him the glad news 
that his son lives. When he asks at 
what hour the first signs of cure were 
seen, he finds that it was at the seventh 
hour (one o'clock) ; the same hour 
when he had been told by Christ that 
his son should live. So he and all 
his house have faith in Christ, and as 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



Christ soon went to Capernaum to 
live, we may guess that these good 
strong friends of his, whose son he 
had made well with a word, made 
him choose that place for his home. 
It was the place, too, where Andrew 
and Peter, and James, and John plied 
their trade, and Mary, when Joseph 
had died, went there to live, too. 

Near this time Jesus went to his 
old home in Nazareth. He went to 
church, as it was his way to do. To 
this church Christ had been all the 
years of his boy life and youth. 
Here he had been to school, and as 
he went in on this day, he must have 
seen not a few who had been his friends 
in the old times. 

But the fame of what he has done 
far off in the great town, and near by 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



in Cana and Capernaum, has come to 
them in this small nest in the hills. 
The priest, when he sees him come 
in, hands him the scroll on which is 
that part of God's word which they 
had in those days. Christ stands up 
to read, and makes choice of part of 
Isaiah Ixi., for his text. When he 
has read it, he shuts the book and 
sits down to preach, for that was the 
way in those days. All eyes are on 
him. What will he say first ? 

'' This day what I have read to you 
has come to pass in me! I am he 
who was to come and preach to the 
poor, heal wounds of the heart, set the 
slaves free, give sight to the blind, and 
do good to all.'' 

His words have a rare charm to all 
who hear ; but they can't get it out of 



90 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

their minds that Jesus was brought 
up in the midst of them. These are 
grand, sweet words, they say, but who 
is it who speaks them ? No one but ^ 
the son of Joseph ; that boy whom we 
have seen at play and at work in our 
town, from year to year, for so long a 
time. 

One might say, '' Why I went to 
school with him ;" and one, ''He did 
such and such a piece of work for us. 
How can he be what he claims to be ? 
Why, we know him ! but when the 
true Christ shall come, he will bui^st 
on the sight of all in the pomp and 
pride of a great king." 

As he still speaks on, their doubt 
grows to be rage, and at last they 
mob him. They thrust him out of 
the church, and take him up to the 



A LIFE OF CHllIST. gi 

cliff on which their town is built, and 
mean to cast him off, and make an end 
of him at once. But his hour to die 
had not yet come. He glides through 
the midst of the mean, fierce mob, and 
goes his way to bless towns which 
m^ake no claim to know him as the 
son of Joseph, but are glad with all 
their hearts to know him as the Son 
of God. 

He first goes back to Capernaum. 
This town lay on the Sea of Tibe- 
rias. That was not much of a sea 
as we should think, who have the 
two great seas and all the great lakes. 
This sea of Tiberias, or Galilee, was 
just a lake ; not much more than 
twelve miles long and five or six miles 
wide. 

But there was a great deal of trade 



92 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

on it. There were six large towns 
on its shore. Here, too, were some 
springs, the fame ^ of which brought 
crowds from far off towns and lands ; 
and in one of its towns the king dwelt 
with his court a part of the year. So 
you see Christ could have found no 
one place in all the land from which 
he could reach such a host of souls 
as these shores of the sea of ^Galilee. 

He had not been back from Naza- 
reth long, when he went out for a walk 
on the shore. But those who have 
heard him in the church long to hear 
him more, and press out to find him. 
The crowd is so great that Christ 
looks for some place where he can 
stand to speak to them. 

He spies two boats on the beach, 
while the men who own them are 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 93 

some way off at work on their nets, 
to cleanse them or mend them. He 
knows the men. They are his old 
friends, Andrew and Simon, and not 
far off are John and James, who are 
in trade with the sons of Jonas. 

Christ calls Peter to come to him, 
and begs him to get in the boat with 
him, and let it drift out on the lake, 
so that he can speak to the throng 
from it. So Peter did so, and Jesus 
sat down and taught them. 

When he had sent the crowd home, 
he bade Peter and his men push out 
on the lake and let down their nets 
for a draught. Peter said it would 
be of no use ; they had been hard at 
work all the night long, and not caught 
a fish. But in spite of this he said, 
"At thy word I will let down the net." 



94 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

The net fills at once with such a host 
of fish that it breaks with their weight, 
and they have to call Zebedee and his 
sons and their men to help draw them 
in, and they fill both boats with the 
fish ! Peter is wild at their great haul, 
and he falls down at Jesus' knees and 
owns his sins as to God. 

We do not know why these friends 
had not staid with Jesus all the time 
since the feast in Cana, but we do 
know that at this hour Andrew, and 
Peter, and James, and John, left fish 
and nets and boats, and went up and 
down the land w^ith Jesus till he left 
the world. He told them that he 
would teach them how to catch men 
in place of fish. 

On the next day of rest (which you 
know was the last day of the week 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 95 

with the Jews, and not the first day as 
with us) Christ went to the church in 
Capernaum, and taught in such a way 
that all felt the force of his words. 
But there was one man there who 
felt more than all the rest. It was a 
mad man, who had, as the Jews 
thought, a fiend in him, which drove 
him to do all sorts of bad things. He 
came to church that day (a strange 
place for a man who had a fiend in 
him, to go !) and when he heard Christ 
preach he could not bear it. He cried 
out, with a loud voice, ^' Let us be ! 
What have we to do with thee, Jesus 
of Nazareth ? Art thou come to put 
an end to us ? I know thee who thou 
art, the Holy One of God." 

^' Hold thy peace and come out of 
him," says Jesus. As his firm gaze 



96 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

meets the wild eyes of the poor mad 
man, he yields to his strong will and 
the will of God. The fiend comes out 
of him, and the man is left weak and 
faint, but his mind is sound now ; he 
Is a new man. It Is not strange that 
the fame of this great deed should 
have spread far and near. 

'' Who can this be (all men say who 
were at church that day, or heard 
what was done there) whom the fiends 
mind at once ? Who makes them let 
fall their prey, and fly at a mere word 
from his lips ?" 

When church was out, Christ and 
two or three of his friends went home 
with Peter to his house. 

They had not been there long when 
he was told that there was some one 
sick In the house. 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 97 

The good Grand-Ma of the house 
lies sick. Jesus goes to her bed, takes 
her by the hand, lifts her up, and she 
is well at once ! so well that she goes 
right to work to get up a nice feast for 
him who has brought her back to life, 
and for his friends. But there is not 
much rest for Christ that day. As 
soon as the sun is down (the Jews' 
day of rest lasts from the hour when 
the sun sets one day, till it sets the next) 
a strange crowd flock to Peter s door. 
The whole town came, Mark says. 
The sick of all sorts are brought to 
him who taught in the church that 
day, and made the mad man well. 

He heals all who come, and casts 
out not a few fiends from those who 
have been vext by them a long time. 
What a scene it must have been ! 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



The great crowd of old and young, 
sick and well, mad and sane. At 
first there would be cries for help on 
all sides ; the groans of the sick ; the 
shrieks of the mad. 

But as Jesus stands in the door, and 
his kind eyes glance from cot to cot, 
from group to group, and from face to 
face, all grows still. The sick feel 
their pains pass from them ; the minds 
of the mad come back to them ; the 
peace of God falls on all. 

Think how much Christ did in this 
one short day, and yet, much as he 
needs rest, he does not spend much 
time in sleep. He knows the crowd 
will come back the next day, and he 
steals out, at dawn, to find some nook 
where he can pray. But Peter soon 
finds him, and tells him, '' All men 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 99 

seek for thee." But he has done as 
much for Capernaum as he thinks it 
best to do just now. 

" Let us go to the next towns/' he 
says, '' that I may preach there too ; 
for that is what I came to the world 
to do." He has but three years in 
which to work, and one town must 
not keep him all the time. 

In one town to which Jesus went 
■^on this tour, he had a new case brought 
to his view. 

There were some sick ones in that 
land which no skill of man could cure. 
Those who were sick in this way gave 
up all hope. They had to give up 
their homes and their friends, too. 
They were so sick that I can't bear 
to tell you of it. They could still 
walk up and down the streets, but all 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



who met them shrank from them, they 
were so foul to look at. 

A man who was sick in this way 
heard that Jesus was in town, and 
had wrought great cures. He could 
not hear that Jesus had as yet made 
one who had this worst ail of all well, 
yet he knew that in old times Elisha 
had wrought a cure on Naaman, who 
had it, and from all he had heard of 
Christ, he was sure he was still more . 
great than Elisha. So he made his 
way to Christ, and knelt at his feet, 
and cried, '' If thou wilt, thou canst 
make me clean !" 

Jesus did not shrink back from the 
poor man s foul face. Ah, no ! his 
eyes are fiill of love as he looks at 
him. He lays his soft hand on the 
rough vile flesh, and says, '' I will ; 



A LIFE OF CHRIST, 



be thou clean !" Oh, how that man 
must have felt, to know that he was once 
more clean ! That the vile skin which 
made all hate to look at him, and which 
made him hate his own self, had gone, 
and in its stead was the fair, smoooth 
skin of a child ! 

He was so glad, and made such a 
stir in the town as he told the good 
news from street to street, that Christ 
had to leave the town and go out in 
the fields. Jesus came to save men s 
souls far more than to heal the sick. 
But his cure of this sick man had 
made all who knew of it so wild, that 
they were in no state of mind to hear 
him preach. They would want more 
'' signs,'' and not sit at his feet to be 
taught of Him, So he dare not stay 
there, but goes from them to some lone 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



spot. But there the crowd find him, 
and flock to him from all sides. 

In a few days, we hear of him as 
back in Capernaum. As soon as the 
news spreads that he has come home, 
such a crowd come to see and hear 
him that there is no room that can 
hold them all, and the street is full of 
them. While he speaks to this great 
crowd, he sees four men who try to 
push their way to him. They bring 
a sort of cot, on which lies a poor man 
who has lost the use of all his limbs. 
They push this way and that, but the 
press is so great that they can not get 
to the door with their load. But a 
bright thought strikes them. They 
can get to the steps which lead up to 
the roof of Christ s house. So they 
climb up there with the sick man. 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 103 

Then they set down the bed, and pull 
off the rim which runs round the edge 
of the roof, and then bind him tight 
in his bed, and let him down by means 
of ropes to the court yard of the house. 
Jesus was glad to see them take such 
pains for their friend, and glad^ too, 
that they had such faith in Him. So 
he made haste to aid them. But he 
saw that the sick man s soul was worse 
off than his limbs, so he made that 
well first. '' Son ! I blot out thy sins !" 
said he. 

In the crowd are some scribes who 
thought they knew all there was to 
know of the things of God. They 
have not come to be taught, but to 
find fault. When they heard these 
words which Christ would have no 
right to speak had he not been the 



104 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

Son of God, their minds are full of 
dark thoughts. But Christ reads their 
hearts, and knows all their thoughts 
as well as if they spoke. 

" Why do you think these things in 
your hearts ?" he says to the scribes. 
''He who has the right to blot out 
sins, can, of course, give strength to 
the man s limbs. I will prove this to 
you." 

So he turns to the sick man (who 
still lies on his bed with no more use 
of his limbs than if they had been cut 
off), and says, '' Rise, take up thy bed 
and go thy way to thy own house !*' 

He rose at once, took up his cot, 
and went off with it with strong limbs 
and a clean heart ! 

The crowd make way for the well 
man, as they would not for the sick, 



A LIFE OF CHE 1ST. 105 

and he and his four friends who have 
lost their load in such a strange way, 
go home to tell the good news, and 
all praise God for what has been done. 
One day, as Christ went through 
the gate of the town, he saw a man 
who sat there to take toll on the goods 
that were brought in, and see that all 
should pay the tax which Rome laid 
on all men and all goods. Those who 
took tolls in this way, were apt to get 
rich, but they lost caste with the rest 
of the Jews. All Jews felt it as a 
great shame and grief that the yoke 
of Rom.e w^as on their necks, and they 
did not like to have one of their own 
race work for those whose slaves they 
were. But Christ saw in this man, 
whose name was Matthew, one to 
love and not to hate. He bade him 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 107 

less times than the scribes think right. 
These scribes were so sharp as to the 
times when a man should wash, and 
as to whom he should eat and. drink 
with, and how he should stand when he 
went to pray, and how he should turn 
out his toes when he went to walk, 
and such like things, that they let slip 
all thought of what the state of the 
heart was. 

They did not care how full of hate 
and all bad things a man s heart might 
be, if his hands and feet were made 
to move in just that way which they 
had made up their minds was the right 
way. 

The fear of the scribes was not that 
Christ would break God s law, but 
their laws. 

The next cure which Christ wrought 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



was done In church, on God's day of 
rest. A man was there whose hand 
was dried up, so that It was of no use 
to him. It may be these foes of Christ 
who, as I told you, were on the watch, 
had brought him there as a sort of trap 
for Christ. At least they are there, 
and ask Christ at once If he thinks It 
right to cure a man on that day. What 
scorn he must have felt for these mean 
men who thus try to catch him ! But 
he does not crush them with a look, 
as he might have done ; he just says, 
" Who Is there of you who. If his 
sheep should fall In a pit on this day, 
would not pull It out ? - Is not a man 
worth more than a sheep ? So It Is 
right to do well on God's day." 

Then he turns to the poor man, 
whose hand hangs like a dry stick at 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 109 

his side, and says, '' Stretch forth thy 
hand !" he does so, and at once the red 
blood flows through its veins, and it is 
a firm, good hand once more. 

Were these spies glad ? No ; they 
go out with a scowl of hate, to plot 
how they may kill Jesus ! 

We next hear of Christ as gone out 
from the town to a mount, where he 
prays all night long. He has a great 
work to do the next day ; no less a 
work than to choose twelve men from 
out the band of friends which cling to 
him. 

These are to be his school whom 
he is to teach, as he can not teach the 
crowd who come and go, and he will 
leave his work in charge of these when 
he dies. Mark says that he chose 
them that they might be with him, 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



and that he might send them forth to 
preach, and to heal the sick, and to 
cast out fiends. 

The names of the twelve were : 

Simon Peter, Thomas, 

Andrew, Levi (or Matthew, 

James, James 2nd, 

John, Thaddeus (or Leb- 

Philip, beus), 
Nathanael (or Bar- Simon 2nd, 

tholomew), Judas Iscariot. 

All of these, but Judas, were from 
Galilee. 

By the time that Christ had made 
choice of the twelve, great crowds had 
found out where he was, and came 
out to 'seek him. If I were you, I 
would learn by heart the words which 
Jesus spoke to that great throng that 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



day, with the green slope of the Mount 
for his church. You will find them 
Jn Matthew 5th, 6th and 7th. 

When he went back to the town it 
was not to rest, though he had had 
none for long, long hours. 

There were troops in the town, and 
at the head of them was a man who, 
though not a Jew, had won the love 
of the Jews. He had made the yoke 
of Rome as light as he could, and had 
gone so far in his kind deeds as to 
have built a church for the Jews of 
the town. 

Now this man had a slave who was 
most dear to him, and who lay at the 
point of death. He had heard of 
Jesus and the cures he had wrought, 
and wants his help, but he shows that 
he is a well bred man, and has great 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



tact in the way he takes to send for 
Christ. He does not send a slave 
from his house, nor some of the five 
score men in his troop. He asks 
some of the chief of the Jews (whom 
he made his friends when he built 
their church) to go for him and beg 
Jesus to come to his aid. 

These Jews plead the case so well 
that Christ goes with them. 

When the group had got near the 
house, he at whose call Christ had 
come, sent friends to meet him, and 
say, ''Lord, do not take so much pains 
for me ! I am not fit that thou shouldst 
come to my house. I did not think 
I was fit to go and ask thee to do this 
great thing for me. But say the word, 
and I know my slave will live. As 
I send my men from post to post, say 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



to this one, ' go here/ and to that one, 
' go there/ so I know that thou canst 
send life and health where thou wilt/' 

Christ, when he hears these words, 
looks at the group who stand with 
him, his own near friends, as well as 
the proud old Jews and the throng 
who have come to join them on the 
way, and says, '' I say to you all, that 
I have not seen such great faith as 
this ; no, not in Israel !" and when the 
friends get back to the house they find 
the sick man well ! 

The next day Christ went to the 
town of Nain. This town was eight 
hours walk from Capernaum, and as 
Christ and his friends drew near the 
gate, they met a long train which 
brought forth a dead man to lay him 
in the grave. As they stood to let the 



114 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

train pass by, Jesus caught sight of 
one face whose woe went right to his 
heart. It was the face of her whose 
child that dead man was. Her one 
child and her all. 

Two years from this time Jesus will 
look down from his own death bed, 
the cross, and see just such a face as 
that on the ground at its foot. Mary 
will be there thrust through with the 
sword which old Simeon told her 
would pierce her heart. Jesus has 
to die to save a world, and so can not 
give Mary back her own son, but he 
will give her his best friend to be her 
son in his stead. 

It would not be strano^e if the 
thought of this scene, in which he 
was so soon to bear a part, should 
have been in the mind of Him who 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 115 

knew . all things, at this time. But 
here is a son whom he can give back 
to her whose one staff he is. 

'' Weep not !" he says to her. 

He draws near and lays his hand 
on the bier. Those who bear it set it 
down, and the whole long train stop 
and stare at this strange check. Then 
said he to the dead man, whose grave 
waits for him but a few steps off, 
" Young man, I bid thee rise !" He 
who speaks these words is a young 
man like him who lies there, cold and 
dead ; but at his words life comes back 
to the dead man, love to his heart, and 
words come to his lips. He sits up 
on the bier and speaks, and Christ 
gives the son back to the arms of her 
who thought she had held him there 
for the last time. 



ii6 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

This IS the first time that Jesus gave 
life to the dead, and '' there came a fear 
on all/' 

The news spreads far and wide, 
till it gets to the ears of John Bap- 
tist. We have not heard of him for 
a long time. The truth is he has 
been for some months shut up in a 
strong fort down by the Dead Sea. 
It was the rage to hear John Baptist 
preach at one time, you know. The 
king heard of him, and sent for him 
to preach at court, or else drove out to 
the wilds where he dwelt to hear him. 
But Herod heard no smooth words 
from him. What does John care for 
the crown of that bad man who sits 
to hear what new thing he has to say } 
All he sees in him is sin, and that 
sin is not made less in his eyes, but 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 117 

far worse, by the fact that it is done by 
a king. 

Herod did not dare kill John on the 
spot, for the Jews would not have 
borne that, but he shuts him up in 
that strong fort of his. 

It seems that John could see his 
friends, and that they went back and 
forth from the world to him and told 
him the news. 

When John hears that Christ has 
gone so far as to raise the dead, he 
seems to think that the right time has 
come for him to prove that he is the 
Son of God. It is hard to wait when 
one's hands are tied so he can not 
work at all. It may be John thinks 
it strange 'that Christ does not set him 
free ; at least he sends two of his friends, 
who have stood by him in spite of his 



ii8 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

chains, to ask Christ point blank, " Art 
thou He that should come, or must 
we still look for Him ?" He did not 
say yes or no to them ; he said more 
than yes. He gave proof on proof 
that he was he that should come. 
'' Go your way ; tell John what things 
ye have seen and heard ; how the 
blind see, the lame walk, the sick are 
made well, the deaf hear, the dead rise 
up to life, and the poor at last hear the 
good news of God." But Chrisf adds, 
"he is best who holds fast his faith 
in me, in spite of all that looks most 
dark." 

There was a sect in that day who 
thought they were the cream of the 
world. No one was half so good as 
they, they were quite sure. One of 
this proud class thought he would ask 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 119 

Christ to dine with him, and see what 
he could make of him. 

Christ goes to the proud man's feast, 
just as he would go to a poor man's 
house. It is all one to him, for he 
looks at the man and not at his things. 
But this proud Simon is not a well 
bred host, as we shall soon hear Christ 
tell him. 

Christ takes his seat at the board. 
They did not sit on chairs when they 
ate, as we do. They half lay on a 
couch, with the feet thrown back. 

While Christ sat at meat, there crept 
in one who has heard that he is a guest 
there. She stoops down by the couch, 
and her tears flow forth at the sight of 
his pure face and the thought of her 
bad life. Her tears fall in such floods 
that she bathes the dust from Christ's 



THE ClllB TO THE CROSS. 



feet with them, and then wipes them 
with her long hair, which has been 
her pride ; and gives kiss on kiss to 
those way worn feet. Then she takes 
a box of choice balm worth its weight 
in gold, and pours it out on his feet, 
that she may cool and rest them. 

Simon sees all this, and knows her 
who kneels there too well. 

He says not a word, but there is a 
sneer on his proud face, as he thinks 
In his heart, " Oh ! I Ve found him 
out ! He is not what the mob take 
him to be, or he would shrink back 
from the touch of her who kneels at 
his feet, for he would know what a 
bad life hers has been.'' But the voice 
of Christ breaks on his ear. 

'' Simon, I have a word for thee." 

' Say on," says the host, who does 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



not dream that his heart has been read 
like a book by him who speaks. 

" Two men are in debt to one lord. 
This one owes him a small sum, and 
that one ten times as much. As both 
of them have no means with which 
to pay him, their lord wipes out the 
score of both, and frees them from the 
debt. Now which of them will feel 
the most love for the lord who has 
been so kind to them ?" 

Simon does not see the point, but 
says, '' Why, I should think that he 
who had been most in debt would 
love him most." 

'' You are right," says Christ to his 
host, and then he turns to her who 
weeps at his feet, and says, '' Simon, 
do you see her who kneels here ? I 
came to your house, but you sent no 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



one to bathe the dust from my feet, 
but she pours out her own tears to 
wash them, and wipes them with the 
hair of her own head. 

'' When I came in, you did not give 
me the kiss on the cheek with which 
a host in our land is wont to greet his 
guests, but she rains kiss on kiss on 
my feet, and has done so with no 
pause since I cam.e in ! You brought 
no oil for my head, as is the way at 
our feasts, but she pours out on my 
feet her choice balm. For this cause 
I say to you, I will blot out all her 
sins, though they are, as you think 
them, and as she thinks them, not 
few ; for she loves much. But he 
who thinks he does not owe nruch 
will not feel much love to him who 
frees him from the debt." Then, with 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 123 

a look full of love on the poor soul at 
his feet, he said, '' I blot out thy sins ; 
thy faith saves thee ; go in peace." 

New friends now join Christ in his 
tour from town to town. One of them 
at least, is of high rank. Her name 
was Joanna, and she was the wife of 
Chuza, who was a lord of Herods 
court. 

Mary Magdalene was with him, too, 
and not a few of her sex who had been 
won to Christ by his cures and his 
words of grace. We have cause to 
think that these kind friends staid with 
him till the end of his life, and we 
know that some of them were the last 
to leave his tomb when he was laid 
there, and the first to see him when 
he rose from it. 

One day, when Christ had spent 



ii4 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

the day on the shore of the Sea of 
Tiberias, and had taught the crowds 
which came to him there till night had 
come, some of the twelve took him 
out in a ship, that he might get a 
chance to rest. He was worn out by 
his toil, and soon he slept. 

While he lay at rest, a great storm 
came down on the lake. Though the 
lake is not large, yet strong gusts of 
wind from the hills sweep down at 
times and make it foam and rage, so 
it is at the risk of life that one sails on 
it. The winds roar and the waves 
toss, but still Jesus sleeps. At last 
the waves sweep through the boat, 
and then the crew in their frio^ht run 
to him and wake him from his sleep 
with their cries. 

" Dost thou not care that we are 



J. LIFE OF CHRIST. 125 

lost! Lord, save, or we shall be 
lostr 

He wakes at once, and chides first 
them, and then the winds and the 
waves. To them who have seen sight 
come to the blind, health to the sick, 
life to the dead, by his mere word, he 
says, " Why are you so full of fears ? 
where is your faith ?" and to the sea, 
which leaps up to the prow of the ship 
on which he stands, and roars for its 
prey, he says, '' Peace, be still !" 

The winds and the waves sink at 
once, and there is a great calm on the 
sea. But in the hearts of those who 
are with him there is no calm. They 
gaze at him with new awe, and in spite 
of all the great signs they have seen 
from him in days past, they ask, " Who 
can this be who can make the wind 



126 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

and the sea mind him !" It took them 
so long to learn that Christ could do 
all things. 

At dawn of day the ship comes to 
the shore, and they land near the town 
of Gadara. As they touch the shore 
a mad man flies to meet them. He 
is so wild that no one dares to pass that 
way. He haunts the place of tombs, 
wears no clothes, and no man can bind 
him; no, not with chains. He has 
been bound with chains at times, but 
he breaks them off as if they had been 
of flax. By night and day he haunts 
this wild spot, and makes the rocks 
ring with his cries, as he cuts his flesh 
with the stones. 

His fierce eye sees Christ when 
he is yet far off', and he runs to meet 
him, and bows down at his feet, and 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 127 

cries, " What have I to do with thee, 
Jesus, thou Son of the most high 
Godr 

Jesus, who has just laid the storm 
to rest by a word, now brings peace to 
this poor soul where the fiends have 
dwelt so long. He bids them come 
out of him and vex him no more. 
There is a herd of swine in the fields 
near them, and the fiends beg that 
they may go to them when they leave 
the man. As soon as they do so, the 
great herd run mad and plunge down 
a steep place to the sea, which drowns 
them all. 

The men who had charge of the, 
swine fled, and told all whom they met 
by the way and in the town, what had 
been done. A crowd flock out to the 
shore to see the sight. 



128 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS, 



There is Jesus, and at his feet sits 
that fierce mad man who has been 
their dread so long ; but he is not mad 
now. He is in his right mind, and 
his eyes, as they gaze on the face of 
him who has made him once more a 
man, and not a band of fiends, are full 
of love and awe ! 

You think, do you not, that all who 
came out and saw that sight must have 
cried to Jesus to bless them too ? That 
they would beg him to go back to their 
town and heal the sick, and cast out 
fiends, and bless their homes with the 
light of his dear face ? But they do 
not ; no, they pray him to leave their 
coasts ! 

There is, to be sure, a man right in 
their sight whose soul is his own once 
more, but then there are all those dead 



A LIFE OF CHRIST, 129 

pigs ! It will not do to risk our stock 
for the sake of a few souls more. So 
Christ turns his back on them, and 
goes back to the ship. He will force 
his grace on no one. The man whom 
he has made sane and sound clings to 
him, and begs to go with him. But 
Christ says no, and sends him to tell 
the tale and show the proof of what 
has been done for him. '* Go home 
to thy friends, and tell them how great 
things God hath done for thee." And 
so he goes to preach Christ up and 
down the streets of the ten towns of 
Decapolis. 

When Christ got back to his own 
shore once more, he found a great 
throng who were on the watch for 
him, and while he spoke to them, a 
man made his way through the throng 



130 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

and knelt at Jesus' feet. All knew 
him, for it is Jairus, who rules a church 
in Capernaum, and is much thought 
of in the town. He begs Jesus to go 
home with him, where his one dear 
child, a girl twelve years old, lies at 
the point of death. 

" I pray thee come and lay thy 
hands on her, and she shall live !" he 
says, in his strong faith. 

Jesus rose at once and went with 
him. The Crowd go too, and more 
and more join them as they go on. 
In the midst of them is one who has 
been sick for twelve long years. She 
has spent all she had on men of skill 
who thought they could cure her, but 
all in vain, for she grew worse and 
worse. She lost all hope of help long 
since, but now she hears of Jesus, and 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 131 

the great cures he has wrought, and 
is sure if she can but touch the fringe 
of his robe, it will make her well. She 
does not wish that he should see her, 
so she creeps up and puts out her 
hand that she may touch and fly. 
The touch makes her well ! and with 
a heart full of joy she gives way to the 
crowd, and thinks no one knows what 
great thing has been done to her. But 
at once Jesus turns on the crowd, and 
asks whose touch it was which he had 
felt. 

Peter, who is apt to speak first, says, 
" How can you ask whose touch it 
was when there is such a crowd on 
all sides T 

But Jesus -says that the touch of 
faith has b^en felt by him, and a cure 
has been wrought in the crowd. He 



132 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

does not ask for his own sake, for he 
knows right well who it was, but he 
wants to do still more for her, and 
make her faith firm as a rock. His 
eye finds her in all the crowd, and she 
who yet so thrills with what has been 
done in her, sees that she can not be 
hid, and falls down at his feet, and tells 
him and the crowd the whole tale. 
" My child, be of good cheer, thy faith 
hath made thee whole ; go in peace." 
I think when she heard those words 
she must have been quite glad that 
Jesus did not let her creep off home, 
as she tried to do ! 

When Christ makes us well, we 
should tell all whom we know of it, 
that they too may go to him in their 
needs. <• 

But this scene, brief as it was, kept 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 133 

back Jesus on his way to the sick child, 
and while he yet talks with her who 
kneels at his feet, the sad news comes 
to Jairus, " It is of no use to seek help, 
thy child is dead." 

That must have been a great shock 
to poor Jairus, but Jesus is at hand to 
hold him up. " Fear not,'' Jesus says 
to him ; '' If you have but faith, she 
shall be made whole.*' So they press 
on to the house. They find a crowd 
there. 

Some are friends, and some are the 
men whom it is the way of the land 
to hire, in case of death, to weep and 
wail and make all the noise they can. 
The more rich a man is, the more of 
these mock tears and groans he can 
hire ! Jairus was a man of rank, so 
the noise was great in the house where 



134 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

the dear child lay in the sleep of death. 
Christ would let none of the crowd 
go in with him but Peter and James 
and John, and bade those who cried 
with such a loud noise, '' Give place ! 
the maid is not dead, but sleeps." 

Their mock tears change to a laugh 
of scorn at these words, for they know 
that she is dead. But Christ put them 
all out, and took no one in the room 
of death but Jairus and his wife, and 
and his own three friends. There she 
lies, her face white and still in death. 
She has not heard the din of those 
who mourn for hire ; she does not see 
the tears of those who now stand by 
the bed of their sweet child, half in 
fear and half in hope. But she does 
hear at once the voice of Jesus. He 
speaks but two words in the Jews 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 135 

tongue: ''Rise, child!" Her soul 
comes back, she starts up from her 
bed, she walks, and Christ bids them 
give her food. 

As soon as Jesus had left the house 
of Jairus, two blind men heard that 
he was near, and made their way to 
his house with him. As they went 
through the streets they cried, " Thou 
son of David ! Thou son of David, 
help us!" But Jesus did not heal 
them till he got home. Then he said 
to them, " Have you faith that I can 
do this for you T 

They said, " Yes, Lord." 

Then he laid his hand on their eyes 
and said, "As is your faith, so be it 
to you/' 

We know how great their faith 
must have been, for their blind eyes 



136 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

saw once more, and they went out to 
spread the fame of him who gave them 
sight. 

There seems to have been no rest 
for Christ that day. As soon as the 
blind men were gone, a new group of 
friends came to his door for aid. They 
have with them a man who is in a sad 
state. He has a fiend in him, and is 
dumb. Christ does not ask for faith 
in this poor soul, but heals him for the 
sake of those whose faith has brousfht 
him there. He casts out the fiend, 
and the dumb man speaks. All cry 
that such a thing has not been known 
as that the dumb should speak. But 
that proud sect of which I told you, 
who thought they knew all there was 
to know, though they dare not say 
Christ could not cast out fiends at all, 




CHRIST RESTORES THE BLIND TO SIGHT 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 137 

said he did it by the help of the prince 
of fiends ! 

Christ next goes once more to his 
old home in Nazareth. He will give 
them one more chance to own him 
and let him bless them, as they must 
have heard he has done all the towns 
where he has been. 

They have heard all this, and they 
see the crowds that go with Jesus in 
all his tours, but they have no more 
faith than when he first came to them. 
" We know him too well. We knew 
him as a child. Some of his kin still 
dwell in our town. There can not be 
much to him !" 

They do not dare mob him, as they 
had done the first time he came to 
them, for he has too large a band of 
friends with him. But they greet him 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



With frowns and not with smiles, and 
all he can do for that poor, mean town, 
IS to lay his hand on a few sick folk 
and heal them, for they have no faith 
In him. 

Christ now made his ' third tour 
through Galilee, to teach and preach 
and heal, from town to town. But 
when he saw the great flocks who 
came out to hear him, and saw how 
much need they had of some one to 
guide them and teach them, his heart 
was drawn out by the sight. He said 
they were like lost sheep, faint for want 
of food, and with no one to lead them 
to the fold. He knew that he could 
not be long with them. His time on 
earth was short, and he must soon 
leave them, and go to coasts where he 
had not yet been seen. 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 139 

So he sent the twelve out, two by 
two, to help him in his great work. 
He gave them the right and the 
strength- to preach, to heal the sick, 
raise the dead, and to cast out fiends. 
They were to take no robe with them 
but that they wore, no goods, or purse, 
or food. They were just to go, staff 
in hand, from town to town, and take 
what fare they could find. 

He bade them preach where they 
could, and when they found a town 
which did not wish to hear them, they 
were to go from it at once, and shake 
off the dust of their feet as a sign that 
the curse of God was on them for their 
scorn of His grace. 

But he told the twelve that they 
would have a hard time. That they 
would be like sheep in the midst of 



140 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

wolves, and must be on their guard 
all the time. They were to prove by 
their words and deeds that they were 
both wise and free from guile. He 
bade them make up their minds to 
stand in courts and face kings, and 
feel the scourge and win the hate of 
all men; and all this for the sake of 
Christ their Lord. But to cheer them 
he told them that God, who took such 
care of the least of birds, that one of 
them could not fall to the ground and 
He not see it, would care for them who 
were far more dear. And, most of all, 
that He would count all that was done 
to them as if it were done to him. 

Christ did not rest while the twelve 
went out on their tour. He, too, went 
on with his work from town to town. 
While the twelve are gone from him, 



J. LIFE OF CHRIST, 141 

the news is brought him that John 
Baptist is dead. We left John in 
Herod s fort. While there he seems 
to have won the king s good will in 
spite of his bold thrusts at his sins. 
When he heard him preach, the king 
did not a few things, and heard him 
with joy. He tried to patch up his 
bad life here and there, but did not 
give up the one black sin which John 
told him he must get rid of His 
wife is one whom it was a sin for him 
to take, but he still keeps her. 

Her heart is full of hate when she 
finds that she can not make the king 
kill this bold man who chides him for 
his sin. She plots how she can put 
her foe to death, and as she knows 
Herod s weak points so well, she soon 
finds a time and a way. 



142 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

Herod s birth day has come, and a 
gay feast has been held in the court. 
Herodias (that is the bad wifes name) 
has a child who is as full of wiles as 
she. Her name is Salome. 

Herodias sends her in, when the 
feast is at its height, to dance a wild, 
free dance, in the hall where the feast 
is kept. 

Herodias* knows what the king is 
when he is mad with wine. 

She hears with joy the wild shouts 
which he and his lords send up as 
Salome, bold bad girl that she was, 
leaps and glides to and fro in the mad 
dance. 

It turns ovit as Herodias knew it 
would. Herod, drunk, says, with an 
oath, that he will give a girl who can 
dance like that, just what she asks. 



.4. LIFE OF CHRIST. 143 

Herodias tells her what to ask. What 
fair, choice thing can it be that a young 
girl can ask for a gift ? The head of 
John the Baptist ! 

'*' I will that thou give me, by and by, 
the head of John the Baptist in a dish!" 

Do you want to know more of a 
girl like that ? 

Herod has so much sense left in 
spite of his wine, as to feel a pang of 
grief that he has been caught in such 
a trap, and he longs to save the just 
man s life. But his oath, though he 
took it when he was drunk, is more 
in his eyes than God's law. He sends 
at once to the fort, and the grim head 
with its sad eyes and long locks, is 
soon brought in, and the girl takes the 
dish which holds it, and trips out with 
her prize ! 



144 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

-Those who have clung to John the 
Baptist, in spite of his chains, take up 
his corse and lay it in the grave, and 
then go right to Jesus with the sad 
tale. 

But Herod is not at ease. The 
fumes of the feast have gone off, and 
the thought that he has slain a good 
brave man, haunts the king like his 
ghost. He is so ill at ease, that when 
he hears of a young man who goes 
from town to town with signs and 
great deeds, he is full of fears. He 
says, "It is true that I cut off the 
head of John the Baptist, but who 
but he can this be who can do such 
things ? This is John the Baptist 
who has come to life once more." 

He did not guess that he was more 
than John, that he was the Judge of 



J. LIFE OF CHRIST. 145 

John, and of Herod, and of all the 
world, at whose bar he shall one day 
stand and hear his doom, from the lips 
of him whom he now wants to see. 

W.hen the twelve came back from 
their tour, Christ went with them in 
search of a place of rest, where the 
crowd could not find them. They 
went by boat to the shore near Beth- 
saida, but though they went to get free 
from the crowds, they fail. 

The crowds find out where they 
have gone, and run out to meet them, 
and Christ must preach and heal, and 
not rest. 

It is spring now, near the time of 

the feast, so that trains are on their 

way down to Jerusalem, which makes 

the throng still more great. It is near 

night, and Jesus sees that the hosts of 
10 



146 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

old and young who have come so far 
to hear him, need food. 

Philip is there, whose home is close 
at hand in Bethsaida, and so Christ 
turns to him and asks, '' Where shall 
we buy bread that these may eat ?" 

'' This he said to prove Philip," it 
is said, '' for He knew what He would 
do." 

Philip does not think of Christ's 
might ; he thinks how great the crowd 
is, and how small a sum they have in 
their purse which Judas has charge of 
All the twelve, too, ask Christ to send 
the great throng off to buy food and 
find a place to lodge. But Jesus says, 
" They need not go : give ye them to 
eatr 

The twelve stare at him, and then 
beg to know if they are to go and buy 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 147 

the loads of bread which it will take 
to give each one of the vast throng the 
least bit to eat. 

" How much bread have you ? go 
and see." 

They tell him that there is a lad 
there who has five loaves and two 
small fish ; '' but what are they to feed 
such a host of men as are here ?" 

They count the loaves, you see, but 
do not count Christ. He does not 
chide them for their want of faith, but 
calls for the bread and the fish to be 
brought him. Then he bids the twelve 
make them sit down in ranks on the 
green grass. Those who count them, 
say there are ten times ten rows, and 
two score and ten men in each row ; 
but do not count the wives and young 
folks who were to be fed as well as the 



148 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

men. When the ranks are in place, 
and all is still as they wait for Christ's 
word, he takes the bread and fish and 
gives thanks. 

You must not think of these five 
loaves, as like the great loaves of New 
England bread, or like that of France, 
which you can buy by the yard. They 
are small, thin cakes, and the fish, too, 
are small, which Christ holds in his 
hands and deals out to the twelve, 
but there seems to be no end to 
them ! 

The twelve pass to and fro through 
the ranks with the food, and all eat 
their fill, and yet, when not a child can 
call for one more bit, there is so much 
left as will fill twelve of the sacks which 
those who have set out for the Feast 
h^ve with them ! Far more is left 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 149 

when all are fed, than all that they 
had at first to eat ! 

This moves the crowd more than 
all the signs they have seen him do. 
'' How grand it would be to have a 
king who could feed us all the time 
like this, and take care of us! We 
could lie on the green sward and hear 
him talk, and have no hard tax to pay 
to Rome, and no hard work to do !" 

• But when Christ saw that they 
would come and take him by force 
to make him a king, he sent the twelve 
to their ship, and then sent the crowd 
to find a place to lodge, but he went 
to a mount to pray. But the twelve 
do not get on well while their Lord 
is gone. A sharp gust comes down 
on the lake from the hills, and drives 
their ship up and down at its will. 



ISO THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

They do their best to steer for the safe 
port of Capernaum, and toil at the 
oars, but all in vain. Day is at hand, 
for it is past three o'clock, and yet with 
all their hard work through the long 
night they have not gone three miles. 
In this strait they see a strange sight. 
In the dim light they see the form of 
a man out on the broad lake. The 
waves leap and foam, but he glides on 
as if his feet trod a smooth green lawn. 

They cry out with fear. They do 
not think of Christ till they hear his 
voice, which they know so well, say, 
" Be of good cheer! It is I. Do not 
fear." 

Peter grows bold at this, and cries 
to the Lord as he draws near, '* If it 
be thou, bid me come to thee on the 
sea r " Come !" 



^"v^'o^.*r 




C'UUIST KEBUKING I'ETER. 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 151 

So Peter leaps down from the ship 
and steps out with quite a brave air. 
But the wind blows, and the waves 
rise to meet him, and he looks at them 
and not at Christ, and so, of course, 
he sinks. His faith is not so strong 
as his fears. But as he sinks he cries 
to Christ, " Lord, save me T 

Christ's hand grasps the strong man, 
so weak of heart, and holds him up, 
and the two are soon safe on board 
the ship. When Christ stands on the 
deck, the winds cease to blow, and all 
on board fall at his feet and say, '' Of\ 
a truth thou art the Son of God." 

They do not land at Capernaum, 
but some miles south of that port, on 
the shore of Gennesareth. As soon -^ 
as it is known that Jesus is there, all | 
the sick are brought out from thfeir 



152 THJ^ CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

homes, and all are made well if they 
but touch the hem of his robe. 

When Christ gets back to Caper- 
naum he finds the whole town in a 
stir. 

The crowd which he had fed the 
last night on the hill side, have sought 
him in vain on that shore, and have 
come here to find out where he can 
be. But as they tell the strange tale 
of how he fed them, they hear that he 
is on this side the lake. They know 
that the twelve went off in all the 
the boat there was on that side, and 
that Christ did not go with them, and 
yet here he is in the church at Caper- 
naum ! 

'' Lord, when didst thou come here ?'* 
they cry, as he stands up to preach. 
They want to hear of more signs and 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 153 

strange things which he has done, 
but he turns on them with plain 
words. 

" Ye seek me just for the sake of 
the bread and the fish which ye ate ! 
But it is ^your souls which need food. 
Do not spend the strength of your 
lives just to get bread to fill your 
mouths ; but seek for that bread that 
will give life to your souls, life that 
shall have no end." 

Then they say, '' Lord, give us that 
bread." 

" I am that bread ; I am the bread 
of life. He that comes to me shall 
want no more ; and he that has faith 
in me shall thirst no more. But you 
have seen me and have not faith." 

How well he knew their hearts! 
Just then a buzz goes round the 



154 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

church as they find fault with his 
words. 

*' How dare he say that he is the 
bread of life, and come down from on 
high, when we know so well whose 
son he is ?" 

But Christ once more says the same 
words, and adds those which are still 
more hard to bear. 

'' I am the Bread of Life which 
came down from on high. He who 
eats of this bread shall live as long as 
God lives." 

Then comes the buzz once more, 
" How can this man give us his flesh 
to eat .?" 

" If you do not eat the flesh of the 
Son of man and drink his blood, ye 
have no life in you. He who eats 
my flesh and drinks my blood shall 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 155 

have the life that shall not end." 
This is too much to bear. They 
had come to hear of a great king who 
will save them from the hands of their 
foes, and make them rich, and strong, 
and grand, as they were in the best 
old times. But they hear in place of 
plans for such an end as this, strange 
words which speak of death ; of torn 
flesh and spilt blood. 

Some who had been most with him, 
and had long sat in his school, now go 
and leave him, to walk with him no 
more. 

Then said Jesus to the twelve, 
" Will you leave me too ?" 

Peter speaks the best words we 
have heard from him yet : " Lord, to 
whom can we go ? Thou hast the 
words of life. We think — yes, we 



156 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. \ 

know that thou art the Christ the Son 

of God r 

Christ must have bent a look of 
love on Peter when he hears these 
warm words, but he has one more 
'' hard " word for this small group 
who Peter is sure will cling to him 
though all leave him. They do not 
know their own hearts, but he does, 
and says, '' Did I not choose twelve 
of you, and one of you is a fiend ?" 

Christ has now come to the last 
year of his life. He seeks a place of 
rest, and goes to the north, to the coasts 
of Tyre and Sidon. The twelve have 
shown that they care for his words no 
less than his works, and Christ wants 
to take them where they can be free 
for a time from the crowds who come 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 157 

to stare and find fault. But he can 
not be hid. 

There is a Greek in that land, who 
has heard of the cures wrought by 
Jesus. She has a child who is vext 
by a fiend, and comes to the house 
where Jesus and the twelve are guests, 
and cries for help. Her cries do not 
touch the hearts of the twelve. She 
is not a Jew, and what right has she 
to ask help of their Lord ? They 
have yet to learn that Christ came to 
save a world, and not just that small 
nook of it where the Jews dwell. 
They bid Christ to send her off, for 
she will not mind them. To prove 
her faith, and, it may be, quite as much 
to shame the twelve, he acts as if he 
he did not mean to help her. But 
her love for her child is so great, and 



THE CRIB TO THE CM OSS. 



she is so sure that here is one who can 
help her, that no sharp words can drive 
her off. She clings to him still, till 
Christ cries to her, '' O, great is thy 
faith ! Be it to thee as thou wilt. The 
fiend has gone out of thy child !" 

And when she got home the fiend 
was gone, and her own dear child was 
there to greet her ! 

On his way back to the Sea of 
Galilee, Christ went through those ten 
towns which bore the name of Decap- 
olis. He had been here but once, and 
that was the time when a man was 
made whole and a herd of swine lost. 
But they do not ask him to leave now. 
They brought to him a man who was 
deaf, and who was tongue tied, and he 
makes him hear and speak, and the 
news spreads, till a host, who need 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 159 

help, flock to him. The lame, blind, 
dumb, and the sick of all sorts are 
brought and laid down at his feet, and 
he heals them. 

Once more he feeds a great throng 
with a few small cakes of bread and a 
few fish, and then goes home to Galilee. 

He next went to Bethsaida, where 
a blind man was brought to him. At 
Christ's first touch he sees men as if 
they were trees ; but at the next, all 
things are clear to his sight. 

As Christ and the twelve are on 
their way to Caesarea Philippi, he talks 
with them by the way of what men 
say of him. 

They tell him that some say he is 
John the Baptist, and some that he is 
this or that great man of old, who has 
come back to the earth. 



i6o THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

" But whom do you say I am ?" 

Peter cries, '' Thou art the Christ, 
the Son of God !" 

Then Jesus tells them, in words 
that are much more plain than he has 
made use of till now, that the Son of 
man must go to Jerusalem, and bear 
great wrongs ; he must be cast out by 
the chief priests and the scribes, be 
put to death, and rise from the grave 
on the third day. 

Peter is too bold now. He takes 
it on him to chide Christ for this course 
which he has laid out for his own feet : 
" Be it far from thee. Lord ! this shall 
not be !" 

Pie, too, wants to see Christ reign 
with the pomp and show of one of tTie 
kings of earth, and has yet to learn 
that through the cross lies Christ's 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 161 

path to a crown which shall last, and 
be more and more bright when all the 
kings of earth are dust, and when the 
earth has come to an end. 

Jesus speaks sharp words to Peter, 
and then bids all who hear him know 
once for all, that they who want to be 
His, must take up their cross each 
day, and walk in the path of toil and 
pain which His own feet have made 
for them. 

But he tells them that the Son of 

man will one day come in his might 

with the hosts of God. And when 

he shall come, he will make up to his 

friends for all the loss and shame they 

have borne for him, and put to shame 

all who have not been true to him in 

spite of the scorn of the world. 

In a few days from the time when 
11 



i62 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

this talk was held, Jesus took with 
him Peter, James and John, and went 
up to a mount to pray. While they 
are there they are made glad with a 
glimpse of their Lord in that form 
which he will wear when we shall all 
see him, as we hope, in his joy. 

They have slept, we know not how 
long, while Jesus prays. When they 
wake, they see three bright forms. 
The chief is their Lord. His face 
shines like the sun, and his robes are 
white, like the light. With him stand 
Moses and Elias, and the three talk 
of the death by which Christ will soon, 
at Jerusalem, win life for us all. 

Then Peter, who is in such a daze 
that he does not know what he says, 
cries, '' It is good for us to be here ! 
If thou wilt, let us build here three 



J. LIFE OF CHRIST. 163 

homes ; one for thee, one for Moses, 
and one for Ellas T 

But while he speaks, a bright cloud 
rests on the top of the mount, and from 
it is heard a voice which says, '' This 
is my dear Son ; hear ye him," and 
Peter and his mates fall on the ground 
in fear, for they know they have heard 
the voice of God. 

But at Christ s touch they rise, the 
bright scene is past, they see no 
one but Jesus. As they come down 
from the mount with him, he bids 
them tell no one what they have seen, 
till he shall rise from the dead. 

The first sight they meet when they 
reach the foot of the mount, is one of 
sin and woe. In the midst of the 
crowd who v/ait for Christ, is a poor 
man with his son, all the child he has. 



i64 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

This son IS mad — torn by a fiend, they 
say. The fiend drives him where it 
will. At times it burns him, and at 
times drowns him. It tears him and 
makes him foam at the mouth, and 
gnash with the teeth, and he pines to 
death. '' Lord look on my son!" cries 
the poor man. I brought him to these 
fi'iends of thine who have been taught 
to preach and heal by thee, but they 
could not cast out the fiend. Lord, if 
thou canst, O help us !" 

" It is if THOU canst " Christ says ; 
'' If thou canst have faith." 

Then the man cries out, with tears, 
'' Lord, I have some faith ; help thou 
my want of faith." 

Christ calls to the fiend which 
plagues the boy, '' Thou deaf and 
dumb fiend, come out of him !" Then 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 165 

the fiend cried, and rent the boy sore, 
and came out of him, and he was 
as one dead ; so that those that 
stood near said, '' he is dead." But 
Jesus took him by the hand, and he 
rose up, and was well from that hour. 

On the way back to Capernaum the 
twelve have a war of words as to 
which of them shall be chief! How 
it must have made their Lord's heart 
ache to hear them ! He has just 
told them in such plain words that 
they can not doubt it, that he is 
soon to leave them by a death of woe, 
and yet they can waste the time in 
such strife as this ! But Christ does 
not speak to them at the time. He 
waits till the heat of their strife is past, 
as we shall see. 

When they reach Capernaum the 



1 66 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

tax men come to Peter and say to 
him '' Does not your lord pay a tax ?" 
This tax was not for the king but 
the church tax. Peter did not wait to 
ask his Lord what he would have him 
say, but said '^ yes" at once. When 
Peter came in, Jesus did not wait for 
him to ask for the tax, but said '' do 
the kings of the earth tax their own 
sons T Peter says, '' no." '' Then are 
the sons free," What he meant was, 
that he as the son of God should not 
be made to pay a tax for God s house. 
'' But," he adds, '' lest we should vex 
them, go to the sea and cast a hook, 
and take up the first fish that comes. 
In his mouth you will find what will 
pay my tax and yours." At this 
same time Christ calls up the strife of 
the twelve by the way, and makes- 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 167 

them hang their heads for shame. 
Then he says to them, ''He who wants 
to be first, the same shall be last of 
all ; and shall serve all." To make 
this still more plain to them as he sits in 
the house, he calls a young child who 
is there and takes him up in his arms 
and says, this is what you must be or 
you can not find a place at all in my 
realm— not to speak of the chief place. 
He who shall be most like this child 
shall be chief in God s realm. Ah, 
dear child ! what love Christ has for 
such as you ! How can you but love 
him with all your heart, and strive, as 
you grow up, not to be great, but meek, 
and mildj and pure as the child whom 
Christ held in his arms that day ? 

The fall has now come and a great 
feast of the Jews draws near. This 



i68 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

feast was meant to call to mind the 
time when they were on their way from 
Egypt to the good land where they 
now dwelt. 

The law was^ that they were all to 
leave their homes and camp out for 
this week of praise, in booths made of 
boughs. This must have been the best 
feast of the year, to the small folk at 
least. 

Some of Christ's kin tried to make 
him go up to Jerusalem at this time, 
and do some great thing to prove that 
he was the king of the Jews. They 
had no true faith in him, which could 
wait for him to do his own work, in 
his own way and time. But he said, 
" Go ye up to this feast. I shall not 
go up yet, for my time is not yet full 
come." 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 169 

So they went and left him. 

At Jerusalem there was a great stir, 
and Jesus was the cause of it. All 
thought that he would be at the feast, 
but when they found he had not come 
he was the theme of all tongues. One 
told this thing he had done, and one 
told that. One said he was '' a good 
man f and one said, '' no." But in 
the midst of the feast, all at once, 
Jesus stood in their sight, in the house 
of God, and taught. He knew that 
there were plots to kill him, but in the 
great throng who were now in Jerusa- 
lem he had not a few warm friends ; 
and he would give those who were 
his foes a chance to hear his words of 
truth. 

On the last day of the feast Jesus 
speaks once more in the house of God, 



I JO THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

He tells all who have kept the feast, 
that they have seen a type of him each 
day of all the week of praise. 

The high priest was wont to go to 
the Pool of Siloam and there fill a jar 
of gold, which he brought back to the 
house of God with great pomp. The 
great throng would meet him with 
palms in their hands, and a chant of 
praise. This would bring to mind the 
time when the tribes were faint with 
thirst, and when Moses smote the rock 
and a stream came forth to give them 
new life. 

But this is what Jesus told them : 
" If a man thirst, let him come to me 
and drink ! He that hath faith in me 
shall have a fount of life in his own 
soul, and shall not thirst." 

These words go home to the hearts 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



171 



of some who heard him, but some hate 
him all the more. That sect of the 
Jews which took the lead in all things, 
were full of hate of Christ. They 
were so proud and vain, that when 
they heard Christ teach that the way 
to please God was to be meek and 
mild, and like a child in heart, it drove 
them mad with rage. They and the 
chief priests sent men to take Christ 
and drag him to their court, where 
they could have their own way with 
him, and doom him to death. But 
when these men heard him preach 
they did not dare lay hands on him, 
for, as they said, '^No man could speak 
like that r 

This made the rage of those who 
had sent them still more great. But 
there is In the midst of them one w^ho 



172 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

has been for three years a friend to 
Christ at heart. 

It is Nicodemus, the judge, who 
went long since to talk with Christ in 
the night. He now speaks for him, 
and says to his foes, '' Doth our law 
judge a man who hath not been heard 
and his deeds well known ?" 

They turn on Nicodemus, and say, 
with a sneer, " Art thou, too, of Gali- 
lee T but they do not at that time try 
to seize Jesus. 

Christ spoke more than once in 
Gods House while he was in Jeru- 
salem at this time. More than once 
the mob, led on by the chief priests 
and scribes, cry out at his words, and 
once they take up stones to cast at 
him, but they can not harm him. 

He cures one man, who was born 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 173 

blind, and so had no hope of help 
from the skill of man. 

Christ's foes try to think there is 
some trick here, and that the man was 
not blind. They call those whose son 
the blind man was, and press them to 
tell the whole tale. But they fear the 
court, and so all they will say is, " We 
know that this is our son, and that he 
was born blind ; but by what means 
he now sees, or who made his eyes 
see, we know not. He is of age, ask 
him." - 

Then they call the man, and let him 
see at once what they want him to say. 
They bid him, '' Give God the praise ; 
and don't think that this man who we 
know is a bad man, could do such a 
great thing as to give sight to the blind.'' 

But the man sticks to the truth: 



174 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

" I know not," says he, " if he be 
a bad man or not; but I do know 
one thing, I was blind. Now I can 
see. 

^' But what did he do to you ? How 
did he make you see ?" 

'' I have told you, and you would 
not take my word for it ; why do you 
want to hear it twice ? Do you want 
to join his school too ?" 

Then they jeer and scoff. '' We 
are of Moses' school,'' they say. '' We 
know that God spake to Moses, but 
as for this man we know not from 
whence he is." 

'' That is most strancre," said he who 
had been blind. '' You who know all 
things, as you think, do not know who 
this man is who can do such a deed 
as to make a man see who was born 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 175 

blind ! If he were not of God he 
could not have done this." 

This turns their rage on the man, 
and they cut him off from the church ; 
for they had said that a man who 
should own Jesus as the Christ, should 
be put out of the church. 

When Jesus heard that he had been 
thus cast out by the Jews, he went to 
find him. When he had done so, he 
said to him, '' Hast thou faith in the 
Son of God ?" 

" Who is he, Lord ?" 

Jesus said to him, " Thou hast seen 
him, and it is he who talks with thee 
now." 

" Lord, I have faith in thee," he 
says, and falls at his feet. 

Some months pass, and we do not 
know just where Christ spent all the 



176 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

time. He goes back to Jerusalem to 
a feast, but does not stay long. When 
he stands up to preach, the mob take 
up stones to stone him, and the court 
tries once more to take him. So he 
leaves the town and goes out to the 
banks of the Jordan. At this time 
he told not a few of those short tales 
which we all love to read so much, 
and which are meant for us as much 
as for those who first heard them. 

You must read these in his own 
words. 

The time now drew near when Je- 
sus should leave the world. 

As he is how to go up to Jerusa- 
lem for the last time, he means to go 
in such a way that all eyes will turn 
on him, and take note of the 'scenes 
through which he is to pass. 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 177 

He makes choice of three score and 
ten men who have been taught in his 
school These are to act as scouts, 
and see that the way is clear for Christ 
to walk in. They are told to go, two 
and two, to each town and place which 
lies on Christ's road to Jerusalem, and 
tell who had sent them. They are to 
heal the sick, but most of all, they are 
to warn those who hear them that 
Christ will soon pass through their 
streets with his gifts of grace. 

In one town in Samaria, these scouts 
were met with frowns, and no place 
could be found for Christ there. They 
would have been glad to see him if 
they could have things in their own 
way, but Christ had said, in plain 
words, that he was on his way to Jeru- 
salem, and Samaria's hate of Jerusa- 
12 



178 . THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

lem was no less than Jerusalem s hate 
of Samaria. 

When James and John saw this 
slight to their Lord, they were full of 
rage. They said, '' Lord, wilt thou 
that we call for fire to come down from 
on high and put an end to them, as 
Elias did ?" 

But Christ chides them that they 
have not learnt more of his grace in 
all the time they have spent with him. 
" The Son of man is not come to take 
men's lives, but to save them," he said, 
and led them on. He will not force 
his grace on a town or a soul that does 
not wish for it. 

One day they met a man who was 
so won by Christ s words that he said, 
'' Lord, where thou dost go I will go 
with thee !" 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 179 

Christ did not say, '' Come !" to this 
man. He would have him count the 
cost ere he took such a step as that ; 
so all he said to him was, '' The fox 
hath his hole, and the bird of the air 
hath its nest ; but the Son of man hath 
not where to lay his head." 

Two more men whom Christ saw 
he bade come wath him. Each had 
some things which it was his wish to 
' do first, and then he said he would go 
with Christ. But Christ told them 
that his work must be first, and no one 
who set out to do it, who had once put 
his hand to the plough, must so much 
as look back. 

It was on this last tour which Christ 
took with the train of friends, which 
had now grown to be so large, that 
one of those who heard him pray, said, 



i8o THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

" Lord, teach us to pray as John taught 
his school." 

And then Christ gave to them, and 
to us, those words, '' Our Father," 
which we all make use of each day 
of our lives. And that we might 
have no doubt that it was right to pray, 
and that God would hear us and give 
us what we need, he told those who 
stood there who had sons of their own, 
that God had more love for them than 
they felt for their sons. 

'' If one of your sons ask you for 
bread, do you give him a stone ? If 
he ask a fish, do you give him a snake?" 

If you whose hearts are bad, know 
how to give good gifts to your child, 
how much more shall God, whose 
name is Love, give His best gifts to 
His child when he asks for them? 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



. Ask and God will give to you ; seek 
and you shall find. 

There was one house where Christ 
was sure to find love and peace and 
rest. This was the home of Martha 
and Mary, and Lazarus, at Bethany. 
It was less than two miles from Jeru- 
salem^ so that Christ could walk there 
when the toils of the day were at an 
end, and find smiles of love, and kind 
words and deeds from the three who 
dwelt there, in place of the frowns and 
threats of the mob in the great town. 
There are proofs that this was a home 
of wealth, and that the three who 
dwelt here were much thought of in 
the town, as well as dear to Christ. 
At one time when Christ sought rest 
in this house Martha and Mary show 
out their traits in a strong light, and 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



though it IS said that Christ loves both, 
yet he seems in this case to praise 
Mary and chide Martha. 

Mary shows her joy that he has 
come in her way, and Martha, whose 
love and joy are quite as strong, shows 
them in her own way. But Christ 
likes Marys way the best. Martha 
wants to make a grand feast for him, 
but Mary sits at his feet to have her 
soul fed with the bread of life. Mar- 
tha as she went in and out with her 
head full of plans for the feast, and 
her hands full of cares, lost much of 
the good of Christ's stay with them. 
She had a strong wish to make much 
of Christ, and show him that she did 
so, but it must be in her own way. 
Mary read Christ's heart best, and 
knew that he did not care for rich food 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 183 

and grand shows. His meat and 
drink were to do the will of him who 
sent him. He is in haste, as the time 
draws near for him to leave the world, 
to make known more of the great 
truths which he came to teach^ and is 
glad to find a heart like Mary s which 
longs to learn all he longs to teach. 
When Martha asks him if he does 
not care that she is at work so hard, 
while Mary sits there with hands at 
rest, to drink in his words, Christ 
chides her, and not Mary. '' Mar- 
tha ! Martha !" he says, " there is but 
one thing which is worth much care 
and thought, and that thing is Mary's 
choice. She longs to know me, who 
am the way, the truth, and the 
life." Not long from this time Christ 
took a case like this of Martha s for 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



a text from which to preach to the train 
who went with him. He bade them 

,take no thought as to what they should 
eat and wear. He did not mean that 
we should not think of these things at 
all, but that we should not fret our 
souls with care as to food and clothes, 
as if they were the chief end of life. 
God takes care of the birds which 
have no store house or barns in which 
to lay up food. God clothes the plants 
which dp not toil or spin, with such 
bright hues as no kins;" of earth can 
wear. If God takes such care of these 
birds and plants, can 't you trust Him 

'to take care of you, who are far more 
dear to Him? The w^orld is full of 
care and fret as to its food and clothes 
and like things, but God wants his 
dear child to show forth His praise 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 185 

by trust in Him. Cast all your cares 
on Him. 

We may be sure that Mary did not 
sit still at Christ s feet from a bad cause ; 
from sloth or from want of love for 
Martha. Christ would not have said 
that hers was the '' good part " in that 
case. We shall soon hear of a deed 
of Mary s which proves that she took 
great pains, and spent a large sum, to 
show her love for Jesus. 

But first I must tell you of a dark 
cloud which casts its shade on this 
sweet home *in Bethany. Lazarus 
falls sick. Martha and Mary think 
at once of Jesus in this hour of grief 
But Jesus is on the shore of the Jor- 
dan, more than a score of miles from 
them. But they send to him at once 
this word: " Lord, he whom you love 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



IS sick." They did not need to tell 
Christ how dear Lazarus was to, them, 
and that he was their stay and staff. 
Christ knew it all, and would be sure 
to help them they thought. But their 
faith is put to a hard test. Christ does 
not fly to them, as they thought he 
would. He stays still in the place 
where he was, two long days. At 
the end of that time he says to the 
twelve, '' Let us go to Judea once 
more." They try to keep him from 
this risk of his life, for the Jews of 
that part of the land had tried more 
than once to kill him. 

But Jesus said, '' Our friend Laza- 
rus sleeps, but I go that I may wake 
him out of sleep." 

'' Lord, if he sleep he shall do 
well." But Jesus had meant the 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 187 

sleep of death, and now tells them in 
plain words, '' Lazarus is dead. And 
I am glad for your sakes that I was 
not there, that your faith may be made 
strong. But let us go to him." Then 
Thomas said to the rest of the twelve, 
" Let us go too, that we may die with 
him." They felt that the risk w^as 
great, and their wish was to share 
it with him. When Jesus and his 
friends reach Bethany they find that 
Lazarus is in truth dead, as he had 
told them, and has lain four days in 
the grave. 

A throng of friends are with Mar- 
tha and Mary in their house to weep 
and wail with them. But when Mar- 
tha hears that Christ is near at hand, 
she leaves the host of friends and 
goes to meet the one friend whose love 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



IS worth more than all the rest. But 
Mary sits still in the house. 

As soon as Martha caught sight of 
Jesus she cried out '' Lord, if thou 
hadst been here he would not have 
died !" She has so much faith as that, 
and seems to have had still more, for 
she adds, '' and I know that though 
he is now dead, yet God will give 
thee all things which thou wilt ask of 
him." 

Jesus said, '' Lazarus shall rise from 
the dead." '' Yes, Lord, I know that 
he shall rise at the last day when all 
the dead shall rise." She has not yet 
full faith in Christ, so he tells her in 
plain words that it is through him that 
Lazarus (and all the dead) must rise 
from death and live once more. '' He 
that hath faith in me though he were 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



dead, yet shall he live, and he who 
lives and has faith in me shall not die. 
Have you this faith ?" Then Mar- 
tha said, '' Yes, Lord ; I have faith 
that thou art the Christ, the Son of 
God, which should come to this 
world." When she had said this she 
went back to the house, and told 
Mary (by stealth, so that the crowd 
who were there to wail and shriek, 
and make as much noise as they could, 
which was their way to mourn, would 
not hear her) : '' the Lord has come 
and calls for you." As soon as Mary 
heard that, she rose with haste and 
went to meet him. He had not yet 
come through the gate of the town, 
but was in the place where Martha 
had met him. 

When the crowd in the house saw 



190 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

Mary go out in such haste, they 
thought she had gone to Lazarus' 
grave to weep there, so they went 
too. 

Mary greets Christ just as Mar- 
tha had done, '' Lord, if thou hadst 
been here, Lazarus would not have 
died." She fell at his feef and wept, 
and the Jews who were with her wept, 
and most of all, Jesus wept. It was 
said of him long long years ere he 
came to this world that he would, 
when he came, '' bear our griefs." 
And this scene in Bethany is one 
proof of it. The sight of Christ's 
tears moves the hearts of the Jews 
who stand by, and they say, " How 
fond of Lazarus he was !" And some 
of them who had heard of, or seen 
some of the signs which he had 



J. LIFE OF CHRIST. 



191 



wrought, said, '' Could not this man 
who has made blind eyes see, have 
kept Lazarus from death ?" 

This was said as the whole train, 
and Jesus with them, were on the 
way to the grave ; for Jesus had said, 
-'' Where have you laid him T and 
they had cried '' Come and see." 
When they reach the place, Christ 
bids them take off the stone from the 
mouth of the cave. The tombs in 
that land were hewn in the rocks, and 
a stone was made to serve as a door. 

Martha thought Christ's wish must 
be to see the face of his dear friend 
once more in the flesh, and she bids 
him call to mind how long he has 
been dead, and that it will be best to 
think of his face as it was in health, 
and not look at it now that death 



192 THE CRIB TO THE CROS^. 

and the grave have done their sad 
work. 

But Jesus said to Martha, '' Did 
I not tell you that if you would have 
faith you should see how God could 
work ?" 

Then those who stood by did as - 
Christ bade them, and took off the 
stone from the place where the dead 
man was laid. Jesus gave thanks to 
God, and said, '' I thank thee that 
thou hast heard me. I know that 
thou dost hear me at all times ; but 
for the sake of those who stood by I 
said it, that they may know that thou 
hast sent me." Then Jesus cried 
with a loud voice, " Lazarus, come 
forth!" 

How full of awe and hope must 
have been the eyes of Martha and 



A LIFE OF CHRIST, 193 

Mary as they watch the door of that 
tomb which for four long days and 
nights has hid from them their dear 
one, whom they thought they had seen 
for the last time on earth. 

But there he stands in the door ! 
Bound hand and foot, with grave 
clothes, to be sure, and his pale face 
bound with a cloth^ but it is he, and 
he lives ! 

'' Loose him, and let him go," said 
their Lord. Do you think Martha 
and Mary could let strange hands loose 
those white bands from the face and 
hands and feet of Lazarus ? What 
a glad hour that must have been to 
them and to those who had come to 
mourn with them ! But all were not 
glad. Not a few of the Jews who 
saw what Jesus had done had faith In 

13 



194 TEE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

him, and were his friends from that 
hour. But there were those there who 
could look on that scene with hard 
hearts and go off with a scowl of hate 
for Jesus, to plot for his death. 

When the news was thus brought 
to the chief priests and chief sect of 
the Jews, that Jesus whom they had 
long sought to kill, had wrought such 
a grand sign of his might as to raise 
the dead, they met at once to lay plans 
for his death. '' He does great things 
they said," and if we let him go on in 
this way he will draw all rnen to him 
and stir them up to throw off the 
yoke of Rome. And then Rome 
will come with all her hosts, and crush 
us. 

But Caiaphas, the high priest, spoke 
words that meant far more than he 



A LIFE OF CHRIST, 



195 



thought of. '' It is best" said he '' that 
one should die for us, so that we may 
not all die," 

It was in truth best for the Jews 
and for us and for all the world that 
Christ should die, but that made the 
sin of those who put him to death no 
less. The court broke up, but not till 
they had sworn to put Jesus to death, 
and made a law that no one should 
know where Christ was, and not tell 
them, so that they might take him. 

So Jesus and the twelve went to 
Ephraim a town of Judea, and staid 
there till the time for the spring 
feast of the Jews drew near, and then 
they set forth for Jerusalem. On the 
way a band of ten men met them. 
All these men had that foul plague 
from which no skill of man could 



196 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

cleanse them. They had had to fly 
from their homes and all their friends, 
and no one could bear to look at them. 
Christ had more than once wrought 
a cure on those who had the same 
plague. These men must have known 
this, for as soon as they saw him, 
though they stood far off, as the law 
bade them, yet they cried to him, 
'' Jesus, Lord, help us !" Jesus did 
not touch them, he just said, '' Go, 
show your flesh to the priests." 

They had so much faith that they 
set out at once, though their flesh is 
so vile they can not bear to look at 
it ; but as they are on the way, they 
are made well ! Now what should 
you have done if such a cure as that 
had been wrought for you ? I will 
tell you what one of these ten men 



J. LIFE OF CHBIST. 197 

did. When he sees that he is made 
well, he turns back at once, and gives 
praise to God with a loud voice, as he 
makes his way back to the feet of 
Jesus. And when he comes up with 
him he falls down on his face and 
gives thanks. One out of ten to say 
" thank you,'* for such a gift as that ! 
" Were there not ten who were made 
clean ?" asks Jesus, '' but where are 
the nine ? There is but one who 
comes back to give praise to God T. 
To the man at his feet, he said, '' Rise, 
go thy way ; thy faith hath made thee 
whole." The rest may have had clean 
flesh once more, but this one man 
bore off with him a clean heart too. 

It was on this last trip to Jerusalem 
too, that Jesus spoke those dear words 
to those who brought their babes to 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



him, that he might touch them. They 
knew that he was now to leave them, 
for he had told them in plain words 
that he was on his way to Jerusalem 
to die. But they long to have his 
hand rest on the head of each child, 
and no doubt think that his touch will 
keep them from sin and harm through 
life. " I wish that his hand had been 
laid on my head !" — the sweet song 
says. 

But the twelve who stood with 
Jesus did not look on this scene as 
they ought. Christ had no time to 
waste on babes, they thought, so they 
bade those who had brought them 
there, go, and not vex the Lord with 
such small things. It has gone ou-t 
of their minds so soon that Jesus had 
told them that no one could please 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 199 

God till his heart was made like that 
of a child. But Jesus calls back 
those whom the twelve have sent off 
with sad hearts. " Let the babes 
come to me, for of such hearts as these 
Is God's realm made up." Then he 
took them up in his arms, and put his 
hands on them to bless them. Christ 
went on his way to the cross. Life 
went on to these babes, till by-and-by 
the call came to each of them to go 
and live in God s House on high. 

It came to some, no doubt, while 
they were still young, and to some not 
till grey hairs were to be seen in place 
of the soft down on which Jesus had 
laid his hand. But soon or late, to all 
of them the smiles of Jesus' face as he 
saw them come in, must have made 
them feel at once quite at home in that 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



new world of joy. But he knows 
your face just as well as he did theirs, 
and if you love him, will greet you 
with the same glad smile. 

As Jesus went out from the house 
where the babes had been brought, 
to him, a young man came to him 
whom the Lord loves as soon as he 
sees him. He does not come by 
stealth, as Nicodemus did, though he 
too is rich and of high rank. His 
zeal to see Jesus is so great that he 
runs to meet him and kneels right 
in the street in the sight of all, and 
asks, '' Good Lord, what shall I do 
that I may have the life that shall not 
end T Jesus said, " Thou dost know 
the ten laws which God gave Moses.'' 
" Oh, yes,'' he said, '' I have kept all 
those from my youth." But though 



J. LIFE OF CHRIST, 



Jesus loves him, yet he sees the flaw 
in him. '' Thou dost lack one thing : 
go thy way^ sell all that thou hast, and 
give to the poor, and thou shalt be an 
heir of God ; and come take up the 
cross and go in my foot prints/' The 
young man was sad at this, and left 
Jesus with much grief; but he left 
him, for he had great wealth ! 

He had the chance to be a prince 
in God s own realm and yet lost it for 
the sake of his piles of trash which 
the moths and rust could eat up, and 
from which death would soon cut him 
off. 

As the train went on up to Jerusa- 
lem, Jesus* went first. His friends, 
though they went too, yet went with fear, 
and strange thoughts stir their hearts. 
He tells the twelve once more in plain 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



words, what will soon come to pass : 
'' We are on our way to Jerusalem 
and the son of man shall be brought to 
the chief priests and the scribes, and 
they shall doom him to death, and 
give him up to the spears of Rome. 
They shall mock him, and scourge him, 
and shall spit on him, and kill him, 
and the third day he shall rise from 
the dead." The twelve seem to have 
thought that some great scene was 
soon to take place from these words 
of Christ ; but they did not yet know 
what sort of a throne Christ's would 
be. 

Salome the wife of Zebedee came 
to Jesus at this time to ask a great 
thing of him for her sons who came 
with her. This is what she begs : 

^' Grant that these my two sons may 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



203 



sit one on the right hand and one on 
the left when thou art king !" '' Ye 
know not what ye ask. Can ye drink 
of my cup that I shall drink of ?" They 
said, " We can." They had no thought 
of what woe he was to drink, and how 
he must shed his blood, and when 
they said, " We can," they did not 
know that they should in truth go 
through pain and toil and blood to win 
their crowns, though Jesus gives them 
proof that so it shall be. '' Ye shall 
in truth drink of my cup," he said, 
" but to sit on my right hand and my 
left is not mine to give. God knows 
whom that place is for." When the 
rest of the twelve heard what had 
been done by Salome, and her sons, 
they were vext with James and John 
that they had tried in this way to get 



204 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

the best place in the new Kings 
Court. But Christ calls them all to 
him, and tries to teach them how 
things should be done by those who 
have been taught in his school. '' It 
is the way of the world to let the 
great rule ; but it shall not be so with 
you. If one wants to be great in my 
school, let him wait on the rest ; and 
if one wants to be chief, let him serve 
the best. As the head of the school, 
the Son of man came not to have men 
serve him, but to serve them and give 
his life for them." 

Now Christ and his band of friends 
come to Jericho, and there their train 
grew still more large, for a great throng 
were on their way to the feast. A 
blind man, Bartimaeus, by name, sat 
by the way-side so as to have a good 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. ' 205 

chance to beg of all who went by on 
their way to Jerusalem. But he hears 
on the lips of the crowd a name which 
drives out of the blind man s mind all 
thought of mere alms. When he 
heard that Jesus of Nazareth was 
near at hand, he cried, '' Jesus, thou 
son of David, help me !" And the 
more those who stood near tried to 
stop him, the more a great deal he 
cried, '' Thou son of David, help me !" 
His voice was heard by Jesus, and 
he bade that the man should be 
brought to him. Some of his friends 
went to call him and said, '' Be of 
good cheer ; rise, he calls for thee'' — 
as if the mere call of Christ made it 
sure that he would give him his sight. 
Bartimaeus when he heard this, rose 
and cast off his robe, so that he could 



2o6 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

make haste to Jesus. Jesus when he 
saw him at his feet said, '' What wilt 
thou that I should do to thee T The 
blind man cried, '' Lord, that I may 
see !" '' Go thy way ; thy faith hath 
made thee whole." And at once sight 
came to his eyes. But Bartimaeus 
did not fail to thank Jesus for what he 
had done. He joins his train, and as 
he goes, gives praise to God for what 
has been done to him, and all who 
see it give praise to God. 

In the town of Jericho there dwelt 
a rich man, who had heard much of 
Jesus. He was the chief of those 
who took toll for Rome, and so 
though he had great wealth, yet the 
Jews bore him great ill will. But his 
zeal to see Jesus is so great that he 
runs on in front, so that he may get 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 207 

a good place to stand and see him 
pass. But he is so short that he fears 
he can not see well in such a crowd, 
so he climbs a tree by the side of the 
road. From his safe perch he looks 
down at his ease on the dense throng, 
and on the young Jew, on whom all 
eyes are bent. No such thought is in 
the head of Zacchaeus as that Jesus 
will care to see him. But as the shade 
of the tree falls on the head of the way 
worn Lord, he looks up through its 
boughs, and sees the small man who 
peers dow^n at him. He reads Zac- 
chaeus at once, as none of the proud 
Jews who scorn him have done. He 
sees the man and not his trade. 

How the heart of Zacchaeus must 
have beat as Jesus calls him by name, 
and says, with a smile, '' Make haste 



2o8 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

and come down, for I must be thy 
guest to day !" He took great pains 
to get just a glimpse of the Lord, and 
now the Lord of his own free will 
makes choice of him to be his host ! 
It is not strange that Zacchaeus should 
have '' made haste and come down" 
and have made Jesus his guest with 
joy. The crowd were full of spite 
and scorn when they saw that Jesus 
had made choice of such a man as his 
host. But their spite and scorn did 
Christ and Zacchasus no harm. The 
peace of God come to that house, and 
a clean heart and a new life to Zac- 
chaeus from that day. The first proof 
he gives of this is to stand up and say 
to Christ so that all who throng the 
house can hear the vow, '' Lord, I will 
give the half of my goods to the poor, 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 209 

and to all whom I made to pay too 
great a tax, I will give back five times 
what I took/' The crowd had the 
thought that Christ had set up high 
claims ; that he was, in truth, on his 
way up to Jerusalem to seize a throne 
and reign as king of the Jews. 
" But-' thought they, ''if he were what 
he says he is, he would not be the 
guest of a man who, though a Jew, yet 
helps Rome to lay its yoke on our 
neck, and makes all his wealth out of 
what he steals from us, and the hire 
which Rome pays him." But you 
see that Christ did more than make 
good his claim to the name of King 
of the Jews, by what he did this day. 
He made good his claim to the name 
of Jesus, one w^ho saves ; and that 
was what no king on earth could do. 

14 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



When Zacchaeus has made his vow 
of a new life Jesus, he who saves, says 
to him, " This day my grace has come 
to you," and then he adds, for the 
sake of those who doubt and sneer, 
'' he too is a child of Abraham, just 
as much as you are, and the Son of 
man has come to seek and to save 
that which was lost/' 

From Jericho Jesus goes on to 
Bethany. The great train which has 
grown more and more large all the 
way, makes its way on to Jerusalem, 
but Christ and the twelve stop at 
Bethany. Here is that sweet home 
where he has been at all times the 
king of guests, but now since he 
brought back Lazarus to life, what 
can they do to show how they prize 
him? We may be sure that they 



A LIFE OF CHFvIST. 



would spare no toil or pains. They all 
go to dine at the house of one Simon, 
and Martha can not sit at ease, but 
serves at the feast, that she may show 
her love for Christ. 

Lazarus sits with him at the feast, 
and a crowd of Jews who have heard 
by this time that Jesus is in Bethany 
walk out from Jerusalem to see him 
and the man whom he has brought 
back to life. As the feast goes on 
Mary gives the proof which I told 
you she would give, that she is glad 
to spend a great sum to do a kind 
deed for Christ. 

She brings a pound of the most 
choice balm, worth its weight in gold, 
and bathes with it Christ's feet, and 
wipes them with her own hair. Christ 
has been on the march now for a long 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



time; a march which would both tire 
and bruise his feet. The road from 
Jericho to Bethany was most hard 
and rough, as all who have seen it 
say. It must have been sweet to 
Christ to feel the cool soft balm, but 
most of all, to feel what love was in 
the heart of her who had brought her 
best to him. The sweet scent fills all 
the house, but there is one man there 
whose bad heart robs the scene of all 
the sweet. Judas, one of the twelve, 
the one of whom Christ had said long 
since that he was a fiend, does not 
like what Mary has done at all. 
''Why was not this balm sold for a 
great sum, as it might have been, that 
the poor might have had it, in place 
of such a waste as this?" 

This he said not from care for the 



J. LIFE OF CHRIST. 213 

poor ; but he was a thief, and had the 
bag in which all the funds were kept, 
and had the whole charge of these 
funds. He had put his hand in that 
bag more than once for his own greed, 
and he could not bear to see such a 
prize as this box of balm would have 
been to him lost. O, what a mean 
bad heart that must have been, that 
could grudge a gift to Jesus at such 
an hour as this ! It is not strange 
that such a heart as that should know 
no change, but from bad to worse, 
though it had been with Christ so 
long a time. 

Not a few of the Jews who came 
out of Jerusalem just to stare at Jesus 
and the man who had come forth 
from the tomb where he had lain 
four days, at his call, went back, with 



2 14 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

faith in him, to own him as their Lord. 
This new proof of Jesus' might was 
heard at once by the chief priests, 
who were full of plots for his death, 
and they make up their minds that 
Lazarus too must be put to death. 
Lazarus as he walks through the 
streets in life and health, and eats and 
drinks in their sight, gives quite too 
strong proof to suit them, of the fact 
that Jesus was he who had the keys 
of death. 

We have now come to the last week 
of the life of Jesus. 

April 2nd, a. d. 33, he leaves 
Bethany to go to • the feast. The 
news that he is on his way spreads 
through the streets of Jerusalem, and 
a great stream of old and young pass 
out through the gates to meet him. 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 215 

Jesus sent on two of his friends to 
the small town of Bethphage on 
the slope of the Mount of Olives, and 
bade them bring him a colt which 
they would find tied there. He told 
them just where they would find the 
ass and its colt, on which no man 
had as yet sat, and if some one should 
ask them why they took it, they were 
to say, " The Lord has need of him." 
They soon brought back the colt, and 
made a seat for Christ on its back, with 
some of their robes, and he rode thus to 
the great town. 

The great train from Jerusalem 
have cut down boughs from the palm 
trees as they have come up the green 
slope of the mount, and as they meet 
the train from Bethany they strew 
these in the path of Jesus. The 



2i6 TUB CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

zeal of some is so great that they pull 
off their robes, and cast them down 
too, to make a soft path for Jesus. 
As they wave the boughs, and strew 
Jesus' way with them, they shout 
with glad hearts, '' Save, we pray ! 
Save now, we pray, O Lord ! Praise 
be to him who comes in the name of 
the Lord !" 

As the vast throng move on with 
shouts of praise, all at once Jerusalem 
comes in view from the heights. At 
this sight, there came to Jesus the 
thought of how soon the pride of Jeru- 
salem must fall ; how soon the hosts 
of Rome would lay siege to it, starve 
those who dwelt there, push down its 
walls and burn the grand House of 
God. And as Jesus looks at the fair 
sight, and thinks of the woe that is 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 217 

sure to come, He weeps and cries. 
'' If thou hadst known at least in this 
thy day, the things which would give 
thee peace ! But now they are hid 
from thine eyes !" 

Then the train winds down the 
mount, and through the gates of Jeru- 
salem, and makes a great stir through 
all the town. All learn that Jesus of 
Nazareth has come, and how he has 
come ; but none of all who knew this, 
knows so well what has been said in 
old times of the Christ as to call to 
mind those words of Zechariah, '' Be 
glad oh, Jerusalem, 'Lo, thy King 
comes to thee. He is just and can 
save ; meek of heart and rides on an 
ass and on a colt the foal of an ass !" 

How Christ spent the rest of this 
day we know not. As night draws 



2i8 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

on, he goes up to Gods House and 
looks '' round on all things," and then 
goes back to Bethany with the twelve 
to spend the night. The next day 
he went to Jerusalem, to the House 
of God. Here he once more, as he 
had done two years back, cast out 
those that sold and bought there, and 
threw down the desks of those who 
made change, and the seats of them 
w^ho sold doves. 

The blind and the lame who were 
wont to sit at the door to beg, came in 
when they knew that Jesus was there, 
and he made them well. Then the 
boys and girls who were in Gods 
House and saw what Jesus had done, 
took up the glad shout, '' Save, we 
pray, thou Son of David !" 

All this, you may be sure, made 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 219 

the chief priests and scribes still more 
mad with rage. 

The next day when Jesus taught in 
the house of God, they came to him 
to know who gave him the right to 
teach and work such signs as he had 
done. He bids them first tell him 
one things ''Was John the Baptist 
sent from God, or was he of men ?" 
They dare not say yes or no to this. 
If they said John came from God, 
then Christ would of course say, why 
did you not take his word then when 
he said of me, " This is the Lamb of 
God, who bears the sins of the 
world," " This is the Son of God ?" 
And they dare not say he came 
from men, for all who were there with 
them had faith in John as sent by 
God. 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



And then Jesus told them one of 
those tales of his, which means far 
more than it seems to mean at first. 
Once there was a man who set out 
vines, and put a hedge round them, 
and dug a place for the wine press 
and built a lodge, and then let out the 
grounds to those who were to take care 
of them, and went to a far off land. 

When the time came for the grapes 
to be ripe the lord sent a man to these 
grounds of his to get the fruit. But 
those who had the charge of the 
grounds caught the man and beat 
him, and sent him off with no fruit at 
all. Then the Lord sent a new man 
to them, and at him they threw stones, 
and gave him wounds in the head, 
and much ill use. One by one the 
Lord sent a host of men to get what 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



was his due from these grounds, but 
those who were in charge slew some 
of them, and beat the rest. 

Now the Lord had still left his one 
son, most dear to him. So last of all, 
he sent his son to them, for he thought 
they would stand in awe of his son. 
But when he came to them, they said, 
" This is the heir : come, let us kill him, 
and the grounds will be ours." So 
they took him and slew him, and cast 
him out of that which was his own. 
Now what will the Lord of that vine 
yard do?" 

Those who heard Christ speak 
said, '' Why he will crush, and make 
an end of these bad men, and will let 
out his vine yard to those who will 
give him its fruit." They knew right 
well what this tale meant, and that 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



they were the bad men who kept back 
the fruit from God, who now had sent 
his Son to them, whom they sought 
to slay. But they did not want to 
seem to those who stood by, to be hit 
by it, and so they spoke in such a 
prompt way of what the doom of the 
men should be. 

Christ does not let them off in this 
way. He tells them in plain words 
that he means them and no one else. 
'' I say to you that God shall take from 
you what he has let you hold in trust 
for him, and will give it to those who 
will give its fruits to him." 

This made them hate Jesus all the 
more, but they dare not lay hands on 
him then, for they knew that all who 
stood by had faith in him. But they 
set sharp men to watch him, that they 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 223 

might catch him in his words. The 
first set whom they sent, came with a 
lie in their mouths. '' Lord, we know 
that thou art true, and dost teach the 
way of God in truth, and hast no 
fear of man at all. Now we want to 
know what thou dost think. Is it 
right for us Jews who are God s own 
heirs to pay a tax to Caesar, and thus 
own that we are the slaves of Rome ?" 
But Jesus saw their bad hearts, and 
the trap which they had set for him, 
and said, '' Why do you tempt me, 
you cheats ! Show me some of the 
coin- with which you pay the tax.'' 
So, they brought him one of their 
pence. '' Whose face is this on this 
coin and whose seal ?" '' Caesar's." 
'* Then give to Caesar the things which 
are Caesars, and give to God the 



2 24 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

things which are God s/' They were 
caught in their own trap, and went 
their way in shame. 

New men took their place, and 
sought to catch Christ in like ways, 
but they all were put to shame by 
him. 

At last Jesus turns on those who 
thus plot for his death, and reads out 
to them woe on woe which shall be 
their doom, for their life of cheats and 
shams. They took such care to seem 
good in the eyes of men that they did 
not care at all that their hearts were 
foul in the sight of God. But Christ 
rends off the veil from their hearts, 
and shows them just how mean and 
vile they are, and tells them that God s 
curse is on them now, and shall not 
pass from them. 



J. LIFE OF CHRIST. 225 

These dread words end in a sad 
wail, wrung- from the heart of Christ 
at the thought of what the fate of Je- 
rusalem must be. O Jerusalem ! Je- 
rusalem ! how have I sought to save 
you from your fate, and shield you 
from your foes, as a hen doth shield 
her brood with her wings, but you 
would not come to me ! and now it 
is too late!" 

When Jesus and his friends went 
out that night from God s house one 
of them bade Christ look at the stones 
of which it was built, and see how 
grand and fine the whole rich pile was. 
But Christ said, " I tell you the days 
will come in which all these stones 
shall be throw^n down." 

And so it came to pass in two score 
years, and some of them would live to 

.15 



226 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

see that sad hour. Christ had stood 
in that house of God for the last time. 
They all went out, as was their wont, 
to Bethany to lodge there. But as 
they sat down to rest on the slope of 
the Mount of Olives, Jesus spoke to 
them of what their own fate should 
be, and how much they would have 
to bear for his name's sake. He told 
them, too, once more, of the doom 
which was to come on fair Jerusalem, 
which with all its pride lay spread at 
their feet as they sat there. And last 
of all, he told them of how the world 
should come to an end, and bade 
them watch and pray, lest the world 
should end for them at an hour when 
they were not fit to meet the^ Son of 
man. He bade them use all their 
skill and strengrth to take care of his 




MOUNT OLIVEl, 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 227 

work which he must so soon leave in 
their hands. Then to cheer them, he 
tells them that in the great last day, 
when God will judge all the world, he 
will count all that has been done to 
them and to all who love him, as if it 
had been done to him. 

On Wednesday, April 5th a.d. 33, 
Christ seems to have spent the day 
in Bethany, or on the Mount of Olives. 
His work in Jerusalem was done. 
But one of the twelve, one of that 
band of most dear friends whose life 
had been one with his for the past 
three years, had much work to do in 
town that day. Judas had had up to 
this time hopes that Jesus would prove 
to be the Christ ; that he would put 
to shame all his foes, and raise all his 
friends to great rank in his new realm. 



THE CRIB TO TEE CROSS. 



But he sees now that Jesus does 
not mean to do this. So he thinks he 
he will make as much as he can out of 
Christ. He knows how the high 
court plot for the death of his Lord, 
and how glad they would be to get 
hold of him by stealth, so as not to 
raise the rage of the crowds who had 
come up from Galilee and all parts of 
the land where Jesus had taught and 
wrought cures. 

Judas has heard that the court sits 
that day in the house of the high 
priest, and he makes up his mind to 
go and see what they will pay him to 
show them how they can take Jesus 
with guile. They are right glad to 
see the false man come in,- and pledge 
him the price for which a slave could 
be bought in those days — $2 1 . But 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 229 

bad as they were, what scorn they 
must have felt for the mean wretch 
who could thus sell his friend! 

From that ^hour Judas sought a 
chance to give up Jesus to the court 
In such a time and way as not to rouse 
the rage of his friends. 

The next day was that on which 
the great feast was to be kept, when 
the lamb was to be slain at God's 
house, and all were to eat of It, and 
think of how God had freed them 
from the hand of Pharaoh. The 
twelve went to ask Jesus where It was 
his wish that they should eat the feast. 
He bade them go to town, and told 
them they would meet a man In the 
street with a jar (which he may have 
just been to fill at the well). They 
were to track him home, and when he 



230 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

should stop at a house, they were to 
go in and say to the good man of that 
house, '' The Lord bids us say to 
thee, ' My time is at hand. I will 
keep the feast at thy house with my 
friends ?' He will show you a large 
guest room in which you may set out 
the feast/' 

This was done, and as night drew 
on Jesus left Bethany and went to Je- 
rusalem to the house where they were 
to meet. When it was time for them 
to take their seats at the feast, what do 
you think the twelve fall to a strife for ? 
Why they all want the best seat ! 

Jesus chides them for this more by 
his acts than by his words. He rose, 
from his seat, laid off his loose robe, 
and did for them all that which some 
of them should have done for him. 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



231 



His walk from Bethany through the 
dust made the foot bath, which is the 
first thing with which one serves his 
guests in that land, a great need. But 
none of them all thought to do this 
kind thing for their Lord. They were 
full of thoughts of self, though Jesus 
had told them long since that that was 
not to be the way of those who would 
please him. That in his realm, he 
was to count as chief who could serve 
best. Christ must have brought all 
these things back to their minds, as 
he, though he come from God and 
was so soon to go back to God, went 
from place to place and bent down to 
bathe the feet of each of the twelve ! 
What shame they must have felt for 
their strife as to which should have the 
best place, when they saw their Lord 



232 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

stoop down and do such an act for 
them ! 

When Christ came to Peter he 
cried, " Lord thou shalt not wash my 
feet!" But Jesus said, '' If I wash thee 
not thou hast no part with me." And 
then Peter begs that Christ will wash 
his hands and his head, as well as 
his feet. "He that is clean needs but 
to wash his feet ; and ye are clean, but 
not all" said Christ ; and he meant by 
this, that he could see Judas' foul 
heart. 

When Christ had gone back to his 
seat, he told the twelve why he had 
done this for them : '' Ye call me Lord, 
and ye do well, for so I am. If I, then, 
your Lord, wash your feet, you ought 
to do the same." ''You need not 
think that it is too great a task for 



A LIFE OF CHRIST, 233 

you to do what you have seen your 
Lord do." 

Now in our day, and in our land 
it would be a mere form to wash the 
feet as Jesus did. The shoes which 
were worn, when he was on earth, 
were not at all like ours. Men did 
not wear hose, and the shoes were 
mere soles with straps to hold them 
on the foot. Of course a short walk 
through the dust would soil the foot. 
The way was to leave your shoes at 
the door when you went to make a 
call or to dine, and sit with bare feet, 
and a slave would bathe them for you 
as soon as you went in. That is not 
our way, so Jesus could not have meant 
that we must do just that one act if 
we would be like him. Did he not 
mean that we should think no act too 



234 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

small or low for us to do, If by it we 
can make some one else feel more at 
ease ? 

Then the feast went on much as it 
had done at that time when Jesus had 
come up to Jeruselam to keep it when 
he was twelve years old. But in the 
midst of the feast the heart of Jesus was 
wrung by the thought, that small as 
was this band of friends who sat with 
him at that feast, they were not all true 
to him. There sat Judas, and ate and 
drank with them as if he were one of 
them, but his heart was not there, and 
his head was full of plots as to how he 
could best do what he had sworn to 
do. How could he give up Jesus 
who sat there and said to the twelve, 
'' My heart's wish has been to keep 
this feast with you ?" How could he 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 235 

give Jesus up to the chief priests with 
the least noise, and ckitch the price 
of his blood ! How would he spend it 
when he had got it ? — for it was a large 
sum to him. Jesus may have seen 
the scowl which these thoughts brought 
to the face of Judas, for we read that 
his soul was sad, and he said, '' One 
of you who sits with me here shall 
give me up to death! His hand is 
now on the board w^ith meT Judas' 
heart must have stood still for a few 
beats at these words. What if the 
game were all lost, and Christ who 
knew his heart so well, were to strike 
him dead with a word, or to tell the 
rest of the band what was his plan, 
and they should set on him and kill 
him, and he should so lose the prize, 
and his life too ? 



236 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

But Christ speaks once more, and 
Judas sees that he does not mean to 
stop him in his base course by such 
means. The Son of man must die, 
for that is the one way by which he 
can win life for the world ; — but woe 
to that man by whose means this shall 
come to pass !" 

Then all the twelve cried one by 
one, '' Lord, is it I T None of them 
seems to have thought of Judas as 
more apt to do this base deed than was 
he, and the shock of Christ's sad words 
is so great that no one knows what to 
think, and each doubts his own heart. 
" Lord, is it I !" And Christ said to 
them, " It is one of the twelve which 
shall dip with me in the dish." This 
did not lay their fears to rest, so Peter 
made a sign to John (who sat next to 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 237 

Jesus and laid his head on his breast) 
to ask him once more to tell whom he 
meant. So John asks, " Lord, who is 
it?" But Jesus says much as he had 
done at first, *' It is he to whom I shall 
give a sop when I dip it/' One dish 
which they had at this feast was a 
sauce made of sour wine and dates 
and figs. When the time came to 
serve the herbs (like our cress, it may 
be), which were part of the feast, the 
chief would wrap them round a piece 
of bread and dip them in this sauce 
and pass them on to each of the guests. 
So Jesus did at this time, and Judas 
seems to have been the first to whom 
he gave this '' sop.'' Judas seems to 
have sat near Jesus, where he could 
hear his low voice as he spoke to 
John. When he took the sop he was 



238 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

SO false as to ask, '' Lord, is it I ?" 
Then said Jesus to him, '' Thou hast 
said," and then adds, •' What you mean 
to do, do with speed." 

Some of those that heard these 
words thought Jesus meant that Judas, 
who kept all their funds, should go 
out and give alms to the poor, so 
they let him pass out, and Christ was 
left with none but true friends with 
him. Then with what words of love 
does Jesus speak to them ! You can 
find no words half so sweet, and yet 
so full of strength and cheer in all 
the books of the world. You must 
learn them all by heart, for he meant 
them for you as well as for John and 
Peter, and the rest of those who sat 
there with him that night. You can 
find them in St. John's life of Christ. 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 239 

But in the midst of those good bye 
words, Jesus turns to Peter, and warns 
him to take care of his faith lest it 
should fail when it meets the first 
shock. Simon! Simon! Satan wants 
you, that he may sift you like wheat ; 
but I pray for you that your faith may 
not fail. And when you have got up 
from your fall you will know how to 
hold up those who are weak." Peter 
could not bear the thought that he 
should not stand firm, and cried out, 
" Lord ! I will go with thee to death !" 
" I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not 
crow this day ere thou shalt have said 
three times thou dost not know me !" 

While they still sat at the board, 
Jesus told his friends what he would 
like to have them do from time to time 
to keep him in mind when he should 



240 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

have gone back to his home on high. 
It is such a small thing that it can be 
done by the poor quite as well as by 
the rich, and it seems as if there were 
no time or place where it can not be 
done, if one loves Jesus and wants to 
please him. 

This is what he would have them 
do. He took one of the thin cakes 
of bread which were made use of at 
the feast, and broke it in bits, and gave 
it to them and said, '' Take, eat, this 
is my flesh which I give for you. Do 
this that you may keep me in mind" — 
me, my words, my deeds. 

Then he took the wine cup which 
made part of the feast, and gave thanks, 
and gave it to them with the words, 
'' Drink ye all of it. This is my blood, 
which is shed to wash out your sins." 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 241 

And so to this day, we do as he 
bade his friends do that night. We 
keep a feast from time to time, in 
which we eat bread, and drink from a 
cup, and think of Jesus, and what he 
did for us. Each time we do so, Jesus 
gives us a new pledge of his love to 
us, which was so great that he laid 
down his own life for us, and we give 
him a pledge that we will love and 
serve him. St. Paul says, '' As oft as 
ye eat this bread and drink of this 
cup, ye do show forth the Lord's death 
till he come." 

Jesus spoke more words of peace 
and love to them, and then they hear 
him pray more for them than for his 
own sake, though pain, and the cross, 
and death are, as he knows, so near 
him. Then they sung a hymn, (the 

16 



242 THE CRIB TO THE CBOSS. 

words were no doubt those of one or 
more of the last six Psalms of David), 
and went out, though it was night, to 
the Mount of Olives. Here was a 
grove of the trees which gave their 
name to the mount, where he had 
been wont to go to seek rest, and to 
pray. When they came to the gate 
which led to this nook, he took Peter 
and James and John in with him, but 
bade the eight "Sit ye here while I go 
and pray." 

What Jesus went through that 
night in that grove I shall not try to 
tell you. It was such woe as you and 
I can not weigh. It was so great as 
to crush the Son of God to the earth, 
and make him sweat great drops of 
blood, though he knelt there in the 
cool of the night, and cry to God to 



A>':-i;tf>'^v>i 













CHRIST'S AGONY IN THE GAliDEN. 



A LIFE OF CHPvIST. 243 

let the cup pass from him if that could 
be his will. That it was woe so great 
that none like it has been or can be 
known on earth, we know, but just 
what it was, God knows and not 
man. 

And through it all Jesus' best friends 
slept ! 

Three times he kneels and prays, 
and three times he goes back to the 
three whom he had bade to watch 
with him, and pray. Each time he 
finds them in a deep sleep, and with 
no words of strength and cheer and 
love for him in that hour when their 
sins, and the sins of the world, wrung 
his heart. The last time he came 
back to them he woke them with the 
cry, " Do you sleep now, and take 
your rest ? The hour is come. Lo 



244 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

he who will give me up to death is at 
hand/' The ear of Jesus has caught 
a sound which those who were left at 
the gate have not yet heard. It is the 
tramp of a band of men which he 
hears, and soon the gleam of torch 
lights is seen, and the flash of arms. 
In the rear of this band comes a great 
crowd with swords and staves, and in 
front comes the well known form of 
Judas ! 

This is the last time when the 
twelve will all meet on earth. And 
their Lord is with them, as he has 
been through the past three years, but' 
what a scene was this last which they 
were to pass through ! Judas greets 
Jesus with a kiss. He has been wont 
to do this no doubt, for in the east 
that is the way men meet their friends. 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 245 

But the kiss of to night is a sign. 
Judas had told the band, '' He whom 
I shall kiss, that same is he! Take 
him, hold him fast, and lead him back 
to those who sent you." The eyes of 
Judas can not have met the eyes of 
Jesus at this time ! How could he look 
him in the face } 

'' Hail, Lord !" said he, as he gave 
him the false kiss. 

" Friend, (how that word ' friend' 
must have stung him !) why art thou 
come ? Judas, dost thou give up the 
Son of man to death with a kiss ?'' 

That is all which he has to say to 
Judas. 

Then Jesus steps forth from the 
shade of the grove to meet the band, 
and asks, '' Whom seek ye ?" '' Jesus 
of Nazareth." " I am he." At these 



246 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

words they shrank back, and fell to 
the ground. One word from him and 
they would all have been dead men ; 
but he would not speak that word. 
His hour had come. He lets them 
rise, and asks once more, " Whom 
seek ye ?" And they said, '' Jesus of 
Nazareth." '' Have I not told you I 
am he ? If ye seek me, take me, and 
let these men who are with me go 
their way." 

When Jesus' friends saw the band 
lay hold of him and bind his hands, 
they said, '' Lord, shall we not smite 
with the sword ?" And Peter, who 
could not wait to be told, smote with 
such haste that he did not take good 
aim, and just cut off the ear of one of 
the men!" 

With what grace Christ speaks 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 247 

then to this rude mob which has 
bound him : " Let me do this much !'' 
and then he heals the man s ear with 
a touch, and bids Peter sheath his 
sword with words like these. '' Do 
you think that this mob could take me, 
if I did not let them ? If I would but 
ask for them, would not God send his 
hosts to my aid ? But how then could 
that end for which I came to the 
world be brought to pass ?" To the 
chief priests, and to all the crowd 
which came out to seize him he said, 
'' Why have you come out to take me 
as if I were a thief, with swords and 
staves ? I sat with you in God s house, 
and taught you from day to day, but 
you laid no hands on me. But this is 
your hour." When Jesus' friends 
heard these words from him, they 



THE CllIB TO THE CROSS. 



knew that there was no hope that he 
would use his might to save his own 
life ; so they all left him and fled ! All 
but Judas, who goes with the band 
that he may clutch the price of Jesus' 
blood. 

Jesus was led at once to the house 
of the high priest, where were all the 
chief priests and the whole court, 
though it was not yet dawn. They 
dare not wait till day, but make haste 
to do their foul work and doom Jesus 
to death, by stealth, so that his friends 
may not try to save him. 

Peter soon made his w^ay to the high 
priest's house, and there he met John, 
who was known to the high priest, 
and so he could go in and take his 
friend in as well. It was cold, so the 
guards made a fire in the hall or court 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



249 



and Peter sat down with them to get 
warm, and '' to see the end." All this 
time Jesus stood with bound hands, 
and no one, of all the scores on scores 
whom he had blest with sight and 
health and life, to speak a word for 
him to that court of proud hard men. 
Though Peter was not in the same 
room with Jesus, yet he would hear 
much that went on, through the guards 
who w^ent and came. He was so ill 
at ease that the sharp eyes of the maid 
who kept the door were drawn to him, 
and she soon said, " This man was 
with him who is now at the bar of the 
court : — are you not one of that man s 
friends ?" And what did the brave 
Peter say to this ; he who had told 
Jesus two or three hours since that he 
would die with him ? He did just 



2 50 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

what Jesus had told him he would 
do ; he said, " I do not know what 
you mean ; I do not know the man !" 
But he takes fright at the words and 
keen eyes of the maid, and leaves the 
warm fire, and goes out to the porch. 
There a man soon marks his wan, 
down cast face, and sees at once, 
that he does hot lounge there as the 
rest do, with not much care as to how 
the case comes out. Peter's eyes are 
full of fear and care, and the man says, 
'' Thou, too, art one of them !" And 
Peter says " Man, I am not !" 

It seems as if he must have tried to 
seem at his ease, and talk of what had 
come to pass as if he were one of the 
band who had brought in Jesus.- At 
least, we know that he spoke too much 
for his own good. The brogue of 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 251 

Galilee was a strong one. Most, if 
not all, who stood at the porch, or by 
the fire in the hall were from Judea. 
When they heard Peter s brogue, more 
than one of them said ; '' Why, you 
must be one of them ! You are from 
Galilee ; your speech proves it." 
Then did Peter curse and swear, '' I 
know not the man of whom you 
speak!" Where the Lord stood we 
know not, but it was not so far from 
Peter (though not in the same room) 
but that he could hear all his words, 
and see him if he would turn his head. 
As Jesus stands face to face with 
the court who will soon doom him to 
death, he hears this third '' I know 
not the man," from his friend who has 
sworn to stand by him to the last. 
And Jesus and Peter both hear the 



252 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

crow of a cock that hails the dawn. 
'' Then did the Lord turn and look on 
Peter !" If Peter had not been at heart 
a true good man, then that look from 
Jesus would have sent him out to 
make way with his own life. 

All came to mind. It was just 
as Jesus had said, '^ Ere the cock shall 
crow, thou shalt thrice say, I know 
him not !" But he was a good man, 
though not so strong and true as he 
had thought he was, and that look 
from Christ sent him out to weep tears 
of shame and grief, and live a brave, 
true life. And in the end his rash 
words came true ; he did go through 
all things for the sake of Christ, and 
die for him on a cross like his own! 

The court could make out no case. 
When they ask Jesus to tell the names 




PETER'S DENIAL OP CHRIST. 



A LIFE OF CHRIST, 253 

of those who were In his school, and 
to make known what he has taught, 
Jesus bids them not ask him, but ask 
the crowds whom he has taught from 
church to church, in all the land, and 
In the House of God at Jerusalem, 
One of the guards who stood by 
struck Jesus, (his hands were bound 
fast you know) with the palm of his 
hand, and said, " Dost thou speak in 
that way to the high priest ?" '' If I 
speak 111, prove it ; but if well, why 
dost thou smite me ?" said Jesus. 
No proofs could be brought that he 
had done or said aught that was bad. 
But at last, two false men were brought 
In who swore that they had heard 
him say that he could tear down the 
House of God, and build it up in 
three days. When the high priest 



254 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

bade him make known what he had 
to say to this charge, Jesus, held his 
peace. 

Then the high priest said to him, 
'' Art thou the Christ the Son of 
God ? I charge thee in the name of 
God to tell us if thou be the Christ, 
the Son of God." Jesus saith, '' I 
am ; But ye shall yet see the Son of 
man sit on the right hand of God, and 
come in the clouds." 

Then the high priest rent his clothes, 
to show what a shock it gave him to 
hear Jesus thus claim to be the Son 
of God. '' What need have we to 
seek for proofs ? We have heard his 
own words. What do you think ?'* 
Then all the court said, '' He ought to 
be put to death." 

The court broke up now for a time, 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 255 

to meet once more in a few hours. 
Jesus IS left in charge of the guard, 
in the high priest s house. Then the 
men that hold Jesus, mock him and 
smite him. Some spit on him. Then 
they blind his eyes and strike him in 
the face, and bid him tell who smote 
him. '^ Tell us^ thou Christ, who is he 
who smote thee." Jesus, faint with 
the woe which he had borne in 
Gethsemane, and with all that he has 
been through in this long night, bears 
all this mean spite, and ill use. He is 
dumb, though a word from him could 
have slain them all. All this took 
place at night, but by their laws a man 
could not be tried for his life at night, 
so the court had to meet once more 
by day, to make sure what they had 
done. 



25 6 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

As soon as it was day Jesus was 
led to the court, and the same form 
was gone through with as when they 
had sat at night. They ask, " Art 
thou the Christ?" and he says, ''If 
I tell you, you will not have faith 
in me/' Then said they all : '' Art 
thou then the Son of God ?" He 
said to them " Ye say that I am." 
Then thev all said, '' What need have 
we to hear proof? We have heard it 
from his own mouth." 

There was one man to whom the 
doom of Christ by the court brought 
grief, and shame, and death. Things 
had not come out at all as Judas had 
thought they would. It was plain that 
Jesus would not use his might to save 
his own life, nor prove that he was the 
Christ of God by some great sign, 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 257 

which should force the court to own 
him. 

Then there was Judas' own case. 
He was, of course, cast out by his old 
friends who were of Jesus' school, but 
no one else took him up ! The chief 
priests and scribes who had made him 
their tool have no word for him now 
they have got Jesus in their hands. 
They pay him his bribe, but bad as they 
are, they scorn him as he takes it, for 
it is, at least, the price of the blood of 
his best friend, and much as they want 
men who will swear in their court that 
Jesus has said such and such words, 
they tempt Judas with no more bribes. 
He was then, as now, and through all 
time he will be, the scorn of the foes 
as well as of the friends of Christ. 

His poor soul can bear no more. 

17 



258 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

He breaks in on the court which 
would not call him, and at this late 
hour gives in his word for Jesus. His 
is the first voice to speak for him, 
in whom was no sin. He cries, '' It 
is my sin that I gave up to you 
him who is pure of all sin !'' With 
cool scorn the court say, " What is 
that to us ? see thou to that." Then 
Judas cast down the bribe for which 
he had sold the blood of his Lord 
and his own soul, and went out and 
put an end to his own life. 

The chief priests pick up the coin, 
but will not put it back with the funds 
of the house of God, for it has the 
stain of blood on it, since it bought 
the blood of Jesus. 

With some talk as to how it is best 
to spend it, they at last make up their 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 259 

minds to buy a field in which to lay 
the dead who have no tomb of their 
own, nor friends to give them a grave. 
And to this day that place which 
they thus bought, bears the name of 
Field of Blood. ^ 

Though the doom of death has 
been set on Christ by the court, 
yet they have no right to do the 
deed. You know the Jews were not 
free at this time, and they must ask 
leave of Rome ere they can put a man 
to death. 

So they all rose and bound Jesus, 
and led him to Pontius Pilate. The 
chief priests lead the train, and a mob 
join it as they go on. The priests are 
too pure to ^pass the door of Pilate s 
house. The next day would be God's 
day, and they could not keep the feast 



26o THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

of that day if they had put their foot 
on the floor of a Gentile. Pilate hears 
the crowd at the door, and when the 
chief priests send for him to come out 
to them, he goes that he may still the 
mob at once ere it grow too strong for 
him. There they stand with a pale 
meek man, still young, in their midst. 
What they hope is, that Pilate will 
bid them go and do their will with 
Jesus. They know that the case is 
too weak to bear sharp search from his 
eye. But Pilate does not love the 
Jews much, and he will not be a mere 
tool in the hands of their priests. He 
bids them tell him with what they 
charge the man whom they have there 
bound. No doubt he knew who 
Jesus was, for a band of his men of 
arms had gone out to help to bring 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 261 

him in from Gethsemane, and he had 
made too much stir in Jerusalem not 
to have been a man of mark to such 
a shrewd man as Pilate. 

But the chief priests do not wish to 
tell Pilate how slight their charge is, 
so they say, '' If he had not done 
wrong we should not have brought 
him to you/' 

Pilate says, '' Take him and judge 
him by your law/' He seems to say 
this to vex them, for as they now have 
to say the law will not let them put a 
man to death. Then they see that 
they must take a new course if they 
would get Pilate on their side. So 
they make up a fresh charge. They 
say, ^' We found this man had tried 
to lead the Jews to cast off the yoke 
of Rome. He told them not to pay 



262 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

Caesar's tax, but said he was Christ 
the King of the Jews. 

Then Pilate took Jesus one side to 
talk with Him. He asks Him, " Art 
Thou the King of the Jews ?" Jesus 
said, '' I am ; but my realm is not of 
this world. If it were of this world, 
then would they who serve me fight, 
and save me out of the hands of the 
Jews. As thou hast said, I am a king. 
To this end was I born, and for this 
cause came I to the world that I might 
make known the truth. He that is of 
the truth will hear my voice." 

Pilate said to Him, ^^ What is 
truth ?" and then took Jesus out to the 
Jews, and said, '' I find no fault in this 
man at all.'' Then the chief priests 
make up new things to say of Jesus. 
Pilate, as he heard them, said to Jesus, 



A LIFE OF CHRIST, 263 

" Dost Thou not hear all these things 
with which they charge Thee ?" But 
Jesus said not a word. Then Pilate 
cried once more to Him, '' Why dost 
Thou not speak when they charge 
Thee with such things?" But still 
the lips of Jesus did not move. 

Then the chief priests were the 
.more fierce, and said, " He stirs up 
the Jews. He has taught through all 
the land from Galilee to this place." 

When Pilate heard that Jesus came 
from Galilee, he was glad of the chance 
to get rid of the mob and their suit. 
Herod, the King of Galilee, was in 
town at the time, so Pilate bade the 
chief priests take Jesus to him. 

As I have told you, Herod had a 
strong wish to see Jesus. He had 
thought at one time that He must be 



264 TEE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

John the Baptist, whom he had slain, 
and who had come back to life. 

So Herod was right glad when at 
last Jesus, of whom he had heard so 
much, was brought to him. His hope 
was that Jesus would do some great 
sign in his sight. But Jesus stood 
still, with meek, pale face, and bound 
hands. When Herod tries to rouse 
Him to show his might, and asks 
Him this and that, no words can he 
draw from Him. His ears seem not 
to hear the voice of Herod, or the base 
lies and fierce threats of the chief 
priests as they tell their tales to Herod. 

Pilate and Herod had been at strife 
for some time,^but this act of Pilate in 
which he sent Jesus to Herod to have 
him judge His case, made them good 
friends once more. But when Herod 



•-^ LIFE OF CHRIST. 265 

found that Jesus could not be made 
to show off his might just to make a 
man — king or no king — stare, it did 
not please Him. So Herod with his 
men of war set Jesus at nought, and 
did mock Him. They put on Him 
a gay robe, it may be one which 
Herod had cast off, and thus clad, 
sent Him back to Pilate. 

When Pilate finds that the case yet 
rests with him, he still means to set 
Jesus free. He tells the chief priests 
and the mob, '' I have found no fault 
in Jesus, nor has Herod. So I will 
scourge Him and then let Him go.'' 
He thought he could keep the peace 
with the chief priests if he should 
scourge Jesus, and yet he could save 
His life. 

At each one of these feasts of the 



266 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

Jews, some one who had been shut 
up in goal for crime was set free, and 
Pilate meant to let Jesus go on this 
plea. While he sat on the throne of 
the judge, his wife sent word to him 
that she had had a dream as to '' that 
just man" Jesus, which gave her great 
fright and pain, and she bade Pilate 
do Him no harm. 

This made Pilate's wish still more 
strong to set Jesus free. Once, twice, 
three times he tries to save him. But 
the mob, (some of whom had cried 
but a few hours since, '' Save, Lord, 
we pray!" as Jesus rode through the 
gate of Jerusalem,) cried, '' Not this 
man, but Barabbas !" 

Now this Barabbas had in truth 
done just those things which the chief 
priests had said Christ had done. He 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 267 

had tried to stir up the Jews to throw 
off the yoke of Rome. More than 
this, he was a thief, and had shed 
blood. 

Pilate still strove for Jesus. He 
asks, " But w^hat shall I do with Jesus 
whom ye call the King of the Jews ?" 
And the chief priests urge them on, 
and all cry out, '' To the cross, to the 
cross with Him!" But Pilate still 
pleads with them, '' Why, what wTong 
thing has He done ?" But their cries 
ring out more loud and fierce, '' To 
the cross with Him ! to the cross with 
Him !" When Pilate saw how fierce 
the mob were, he gave in to them, 
and plead no more for Him who, as 
he said, had done no wrong. 

But he stood up in the sight of all 
the crowd to wash his hands, as a 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



Sign that the guilt of Christ's blood 
would not rest on him. '' I am clean 
of the blood of this just man," said he, 
'' see ye to it/' But the stain could 
not so be thrown off from his soul. 
Pilate could set Jesus free in spite of 
the chief priests and the mob. But 
he fears them ; they might tell tales of 
him to great Caesar at Rome which 
would cost him his place, and that, he 
thinks, he can not bear to lose for the 
sake of one man, though just and pure 
as Jesus. 

But as Pilate stands there and makes 
this sign, as if he would rub off all the 
guilt of Jesus' death, the mob send up 
the mad cry, which makes our blood 
run cold as we think what it meant: 
'' Let his blood be on us and on our 
seed !" 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 269 

Then Pilate freed Barabbas, but 
took Jesus and gave him up to those 
men whose place it was to use the 
scourge. 

I dare not think what pain the 
blows of those strong, rough men 
must have cost the weak flesh of 
our dear Lord. But no cry burst 
from his lips. It all came to pass 
just as Isaiah long, long years back 
had sung of the Christ who was to 
come : /' I gave my back to them that 
smote me, and my cheek to them that 
pluck ofl^ the hair ; I hid not my face 
from shame, and them that did spit 
on me." 

When the scourge had done its 
work, Pilate gave Jesus up to the 
mob to do their will with him. His 
own men of war seize the chance of 



270 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

rare sport, as they think it, brutes that 
they are. The whole band pour in 
to join in this vile sport. 

They once more put on him the 
red robe which Herod gave him In 
scorn, and which had been stript off 
when he gave his back to the scourge. 
They weave a crown for him out of a 
shrub which has leaves of rich dark 
green, but which has stiff, sharp thorns 
which pierce the skin as they force it 
on his brow. They put a reed in his 
right hand. They bow the knee to 
him and mock him as they cry, '' Hail, 
King of the Jews !" 

But they soon tire of this play, it is 
not so rough as they like. Then they 
smite him with their hands ; they spit 
on him ; they snatch from him the 
reed, and smite him on the head with 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



it, though each blow drives in the 
thorns more and more. 

Pilate, though he has made his 
hands clean, as he thinks, is not at 
ease. He hears the shouts and howls 
and blows of the brutes in the hall, 
and goes out once more to see the 
"just man" Jesus, w^hom his own act 
has made their prey. 

The sight of the white, sad face 
with blood drops on the brow, but 
with firm sweet lips which will not 
curse or cry, moves the heart of Pi- 
late. He hopes the same sight may 
move the mob who wait at the door, 
and ifi the street, for their turn at the 
grim sport. So he leads Jesus forth, in 
robe and crown, and pleads : '' See the 
man ! I bring him forth that you may 
know that I find no fault with him !'' 



2/2 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

The sight, so full of woe, seems but 
to rouse more thirst for the blood of 
Jesus, and the chief priests once more 
lead the cry, '' To the cross with him ! 
To the cross with him !" 

But Pilate said, " You must do it, 
then, for I find no fault in him." 

Then said the Jews, '' We have a 
law by which he ought to die, for he 
says he is the Son of God/' 

This moves Pilate in a way they 
had not thought of The fears which 
his wife s strange dream had brought 
to him, all come back. What if Jesus 
should be the Son of God, more strong 
than Caesar, who rules the workl ? 

He takes Jesus one side and asks 
him, '' Whence art thou ?" But Jesus 
does not speak. 

'' Wilt thou not speak to me ? Dost 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 273 

thou not know that I can send thee to 
the cross, or set thee free ?" 

Then at last Jesus speaks, '' It is 
not thou, but one who has more might 
than thou ; so the sin of him who gave 
me to thee is the worse." 

This makes Pilate seek still more 
to save Jesus. He does all but the 
one thing which he might and should 
have done. If he would but call out 
his men of arms and show the flag of 
Rome, the chief priests would slink 
back to their homes, and the mob 
would melt. 

But Pilate has so much sense of 
right and wrong as to be ill at ease, 
but not so much as to be brave to do 
right at all risks. 

So when he hears the Jews (who 
are so sharp as to read his weak fears) 

18 



274 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

cry, " If thou let this man go thou art 
not Caesars friend/' he does not put 
them off more. He must make an 
end of this scene. He sits down on 
the throne of the judge, and once 
more says, '' See your king !" 

But they cry out, '' To the Cross 
with him !" 

'' Shall I send your king to the 
cross ?" asks Pilate. 

The chief priests say, '' We have 
no king but Caesar !" 

Pilate sees the threat which lurks 
in their words, and yields to it. He 
gives up Jesus to them to be put to 
death on the cross. 

Then the Jews take Jesus and lead 
him out. They, too, mock him as 
Pilates men of war had done, and 
when they tire of this, they take off 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 275 

from him the king s robe, and put his 
own clothes on him, and lead him out 
through one of the gates of the town. 

On his back, sore with the wounds 
which the scourge has made, they lay 
the cross of wood on which he is to 
die. But he is too faint and weak, 
from his long fast and the loss of 
blood, to bear it, and he sinks with its 
weight. They chance to meet a man 
whose name is Simon, who is on his 
way to town, and stop him, and make 
him bear the cross for Jesus. 

Then the train once more moves 
on. More and more join it. There 
are some whose hearts ache at the 
sight of such shame and woe as are 
put on Jesus, and they break out in 
sobs and cries. The sad wail comes 
to the ears of him for whom they 



276 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

mourn, and he turns to speak to them : 
'' Weep not for me, ye wives of 
Jerusalem ! but weep for your own 
fate and that of those whom you have 
borne. The days are near at hand 
when she who has borne no child 
shall be thought the most rich of you 
all. Then shall all cry to the rocks, 
* Fall on us '/ and to the hills, ' Hide 
us '/ for if they do these things in a 
green tree, what shall be done in the 
dry ?" 

This was the last time they would 
hear Jesus preach, and his words must 
have rung in the ears of some of them 
till the black hour of the siege came, 
and they and their sons were slain by 
the sword or died for want of food. 

The place where the cross was to 
be set up was a round knoll, which 



J. LIFE OF CHRIST. 277 

had so much of the shape of a skull 
as to go by that name — The Place 
OF A Skull. 

To add to the shame of the scene, 
two thieves had been brought with 
them to meet the same death with 
him who had no sin ! 

I could tell you a sad tale of the 
pain of this mode of death, but I can 
not bear to do so. All you need to 
know is, that it was as full of woe as 
death could be, and that Jesus bore it 
all for us. His love for us was so 
great that he gave up his life for us, 
so that we might be freed from sin, 
and share his joy on high. And he 
could pray for those who drove the 
nails, and say, '' Blot out their sin, for 
they know not what they do." 

Some one who stood by at that 



278 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

hour, ere the cross to which he was 
held fast by nails was set up in its 
place, brought Jesus a draught of wine 
in which myrrh had been put. This 
was meant to dull his sense of the 
sharp pain, and so Christ would not 
drink it. 

His foes did not take his life from 
him while he slept, or while he knew 
not what they did, through the drugs 
they gave him. He gave up his own 
life for us. 

And now they lift up the three, 
and make each cross firm in its place. 
Jesus is in the midst, and the two 
thieves on the right hand and the left. 

Pilate had sent a scroll to be put 
up on the top of Jesus' cross. He 
wrote it with his own hand in three 
tongues, so that all who went by could 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 279 

read it : '' Jesus of Nazareth, the 
King of the Jews/' 

It did not please the chief priests, 
as Pilate knew it w^ould not, and they 
beg him to change it, at least so that 
it will read, ''He said, I am King of 
the Jews." 

But Pilate said, " What I wrote, I 
wrote," and they dare not urge him 
more to change it, lest they should 
vex him, so that he would yet save 
Jesus from them. 

When the guard had done their 
work, and set up the cross, they took 
the spoil which fell to them. The 
long, full cloak which Jesus had worn 
they tore in four parts, one for each of 
them. But his '' coat," the robe worn 
next the skin, was so wrought that it 
had no seam. They do not like to 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



Spoil this, SO they cast lots for it, whose 
it shall be. When this is done, they 
sit down to watch there. Some of 
the chief men of the Jews are there 
to watch him, too, and they mock him 
with the cry, " Let him save his own 
life if he be the Christ of God !" 

This stirs up the guard once more, 
and they bring Jesus sour wine to 
drink, but mock him as they come : 
" If thou be the King of the Jews, 
save thy own life !" This must have 
made the Jews wince, since their lives 
were not in their own hands, for they 
were the slaves of Rome. 

The cross stood not far. from the 
gate of the town, which was now 
more than full of the great crowd 
who came up from all parts of the 
land to keep the Feast, so that a 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 281 

throng went back and forth by the 
cross. All, as they draw near and 
read the scroll which is on Jesus' 
cross, feel the scorn which Pilate has 
shown them in its words, and vent on 
Jesus the rage which they dare not 
show to Pilate. 

So they, too, wag their heads and 
rail on Jesus, and take up the cry of 
the chief priests, '' If thou be the Son 
of God, come down from the cross, 
that we may see and have faith in 
thee !'' 

And the chief priests and scribes 
once more mock him, and cry, " He 
came to save us, but he can not save 
his own life !" They spoke the truth, 
though they did not mean it for truth. 

To win life for the world, Jesus 
Christ had to give up his own life. It 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



was true he could not, for he would 
not, save his own life. One poor 
wretch, though death stares him in the 
face as he hangs on the cross at Jesus' 
side, adds his voice to the shout of 
scorn and rage, and rails at him whom 
he must one day meet as his judge. 
" If thou be the Christ save thine own 
self and us!" But his mate, the thief 
who hangs on the third cross, chides 
him for his words ; '* Dost thou not 
fear God, since the same doom is on 
thee ? And we in truth, ought to be 
here, since we have brought this doom 
on us by our deeds ; but this man 
hath done no wrong. 

And now Jesus, though he hangs 
there on the cross in the pangs of 
death, and seems to the eyes which 
glare at him in rage and scorn to drink 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 283 

the last dregs of loss and shame, yet 
does a deed more great than to have 
made a world. He saves a soul from 
death ! He plants in the breast of that 
poor thief at his side, faith in him ! 
What an hour was that for faith in 
Jesus to spring up ! 

His best friends had fled in grief 
and fear, or wept at the foot of his 
cross, as if his cause were lost by his 
death, though he had told them that 
just these things must come to pass. 
But here hangs a poor thief, who has 
not seen Jesus heal the sick, or cast 
out fiends, or raise the dead. He has 
not heard him preach. But he has 
seen how pure Jesus is, how meek he 
is, yes, and how strong he is, though 
his frail flesh is torn and sinks to death. 
At that dark hour, when to man s eye 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



Jesus has least might to bless and 
save, this man, with a faith bom of 
God, tmstsin him. 

Did Jesus look like a king to the 
rest of the great throng who saw him 
that day, as he hung on that cross 
with nails through his hands and feet, 
and blood drops on his brow ? And 
yet this thief who sees him- now for 
the first time, sees the king in him ! 
He begs Jesus to think of him when 
he shall come to his throne. 

What a step from that cross of 
shame and death to the Crown of the 
King of Saints ! 

But the thief -had faith so strong 
that he could see Jesus as he would 
soon sit at the right hand of God. 

I have said too much of this, it may 
be, but it seems to me that such great 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



faith as this has not been known on 
earth. And so it came to pass in his 
case, as Jesus had once said to a man 
who came to him for aid, '' As is 
your faith so be it to you." His Lord 
said to him, '' I say to thee, this day 
thou shalt be with me in Paradise !" 

'' And I, if they lift me up, Vv^ill 
draw all men to me." So Jesus had 
said months since, and now this thief 
at the point of death, leads the great 
host who have been drawn, and shall 
yet be drawn, to the cross of Jesus. 

There is a group at the foot of the 
cross on which Jesus looks with love. 
In that hour of pain and death he goes 
on with the same work in which he 
has spent his life. He can think of 
those who are sad and in want, and 
bless them. 



286 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

Jesus, though the Son of God, was 
the Son of Mary too ; and there stands 
Mary, thrust through with the sword 
which old Simeon had told her should 
one day pierce her heart! 

There too stands John who was 
dear to Jesus, and lay with his head 
on His breast at the feast on the last 
night. As He looks on the dear face 
which has been bent on him with love 
and awe, from the first hour of his 
life till now, he longs to make sure 
that she will have love and care to the 
last, and he bids John who knows 
most of him and his love, take his 
place, and be a son to her. From 
that hour he took her to his own 
home. Some have thought that as 
we do not hear of Mary as with her 
Son when his friends laid him in the 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 287 

tomb, Jesus meant to spare her the 
last pangs of his death, and so bade 
John take her right to the house which 
he made his home while he staid in 
Jerusalem, and that he did so, and 
then came back to his post at the 
cross. 

At noon a change comes on the 
scene. The three who hang on the 
cross still live, and the crowd still 
surge at the foot and send up their 
jeers and taunts at him who hangs in 
the midst. But all at once all grows 
dark. The sun hides its face, not in 
clouds which soon drift by and leave 
it clear and bright ; but for three long 
hours there is no light. 

The hush of death rests on the 
Place of a Skull. But at the ninth 
hour (that is at three oclock) Jesus 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



cried out with a loud voice, '' My 
God! My God! why hast thou left 
me!" It was not mere pain which 
wrung that cry from his heart, but the 
same woe which he had borne in 
Gethsemane. It was the sins of the 
world. 

Then he cried, '' I thirst," and some 
one who stood by wet a sponge in 
sour wine, and put it on a long reed, 
'SO that it could reach his lips, and he 
drank. Then Jesus who knew that 
all which the word of God had said 
that the Christ must do and bear, had 
now been done, said, 'Ttis done," and 
then with a loud cry to God, he bent 
his head on his breast and gave up 
the ghost. 

At that last cry the earth shook ; 
the rocks were rent, and the veil of 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 289 

God's, house was torn In twain, in the 
midst and the graves gave up their 
dead. 

Then came a new proof that Jesus 
Christ on his cross will draw all men 
to him. The chief of the squad of 
troops who stood by to watch the 
scene, and those who were with 
him, when they saw what was done 
cried, '' In truth this was the Son of 
God !" And the crowd who had 
come out to see the sight, and had 
been so light of heart and full of 
taunts and jeers, nov\^ smite on their 
breasts in fear and shame as they go 
to their homes. And far off, yet 
where they could see all that was 
done, stood a large group of the friends 
of Jesus, and not a few of the wives 
and maids from his old home in Gali- 

19 



• 290 THE CRIB TO THlf CROSS. 

lee, who had been with him in his last 
tour or had come up to Jerusalem to 
meet him here. 

Some of the Jews who did not 
know that Jesus w^as dead, and who 
did not wish that the cross should still 
stand on God s day which now drew 
near, went to Pilate to beg that he 
would have his men of war break 
the legs of those who hung there, 
and thus put a quick end to their 
life. So they broke the legs of the 
two thieves, but when they came to 
Jesus they found him dead, so they 
did not break a bone of him, as it had 
been said of him, like the lamb slain 
for the feast, '' They shall not break a 
bone of him." But one of the o^uards 
took his spear and thrust it in his side, 
from which blood come forth. 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 291 

Now we come to the third proof 
that Jesus Christ on the cross would 
draw all men to him. 

There was a rich man, Joseph of 
Arimathea, a judge of high rank, and 
*' a good man and just," whose faith in 
Jesus (which had been hid " for fear 
of the Jews,") is made to blaze out in 
the sight of all men by his death on 
the cross. While he lives, and works 
great signs, and speaks grand words 
Joseph dare not own him, though he 
loves him in his heart. But as soon as 
his foes seem to have had their own way 
and to have made an end of him and 
his work, Josephs faith grows frank 
and strong and bold. He goes right 
to Pilate who knows him well, and 
begs for leave to take the corpse of 
Jesus. Pilate does not know what to 



292 • THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

make of it when he hears that Jesus 
IS so soon dead. Death on the cross 
IS a slow mode of death, and Jesus 
had hung there but six hours at the 
most. Pilate sends for the chief of 
his troops who were there to watch 
the scene, and learns from him that 
it is so in truth. Then he gives 
Joseph leave to do what he asks. 

But when Joseph goes to claim his 
prize, he is met by one who longs to 
share in the last sad rites. Nicode- 
mus (he who went to Jesus by night 
for fear of the Jews^ two or three years 
back), rich, and of the same high rank 
with Joseph, now comes to do his best 
to show his faith in him. He brings 
with him five score pounds of rare 
drugs to wrap round the corpse of 
Jesus, which is the way in which the 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 293 

rich Jews show their love for their 
dead friends. 

Joseph s own grounds are near at 
hand, and in them is a new tomb 
which he has had hewn out of the 
rock, but where no one has as yet 
been laid. 

So when Nicodemus and Joseph 
have wrapt the limbs of Jesus in soft 
fine bands and the rare drugs, they 
lay him in the tomb, and roll a great 
stone to the door, and make haste back 
to the town, that they may reach it ere 
the first hour of God s day shall strike, 
which will be at six o'clock of the 
night of that same day on which Jesus 
died. 

Mary Magdalene, and the rest who 
came from Galilee with Jesus, staid by 
till they had seen their Lord laid to 



294 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

rest in the rich man s tomb, and then 
they, too, had to go home to keep the 
Day. 

But though Jesus is dead, though 
he has died in the sight of such a 
crowd of men, yet his foes still fear 
him. So as quick as the sun sets on 
God's day, they rush off to Pilate with 
a new cry. '' Sir," they say, '' we call 
to mind that that man said, in his life 
time, ' In three days I will rise from 
the dead.' Now let the tomb be made 
sure till the third day is past, lest his 
friends come by night and steal him, 
and then say that he rose from the 
dead." 

Pilate said to them, '' You have a 
watch ; go your way ; make it as sure 
as ye can." 

So they went and made the tomb 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 295 

sure, and put their seal on the stone, 
so they could know if one should try 
to move it. And then, to make all 
more sure, they add to the watch who 
are to march up and down with their 
arms, in front of the dead man's tomb. 
How sure they are of him now ! 

On the first day of the week (which 
from that day to this is known as the 
Lords Day), when it was yet dark, 
but as dawn drew near, Mary Mag- 
dalene and her friend Mary set out 
for the tomb of their Lord, with the 
sweet spice which they had brought 
too late on the night of Christ's death 
to use. 

The five score pounds' weight which 
they knew Nicodemus brought, is not 
their gift, and they long to pour out 
their all to grace his tomb. 



296 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

We lay wreaths on the graves of 
those most dear to us, but in the land 
of the Jews, sweet drugs took the 
place of sweet blooms. 

While these fond friends are on their 
way to the tomb, a strange scene takes 
place at that spot of Jesus' rest. 

The earth shakes; one of Gods 
hosts comes down from on high, rolls 
back the great stone from the door of 
the tomb, and sits on it. His face is 
like the light, and his robes are white 
as snow. The guards, who see this 
dread sight, shake with fear, and fall 
to the ground like dead men. 

Saints who have slept in the grave 
for years and years, come forth and 
walk through the streets of Jerusalem, 
and are seen of not a few who dwell 
there. 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 297 

Now, as Mary and her friends get 
near the place where Jesus had been 
laid, all at once they call to mind how 
great the stone was which they had 
seen put at the door of the tomb, and 
say, " Who will roll the stone from the 
door of the tomb for us ?" 

But as they come up to the great 
rock in which the tomb is cleft, they 
see that the stone is gone! Mary 
Magdalene, in her grief and fear lest 
the dear corpse of her Lord has come 
to harm, does not wait to look through 
the door of the tomb, but flies back to 
Jerusalem and finds Peter and John 
and tells her sad tale, '* They have 
borne off the Lord from his tomb, and 
we know not where they have laid 
him !" 

But the two friends whom Mary 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



Magdalene left at the tomb, go in to 
see If they can not find some trace of 
their Lord. There sits a young man 
clad in a long white robe, who calms 
their fears at once. 

*' Fear not," he says ; '' I know that 
ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, who died 
on the cross. He is not here. He 
rose from the dead, as he said he 
would do. Come, see the place where 
the Lord lay. But go your way with 
speed and tell his friends and Peter, 
that he rose from the dead, and will 
meet you in Galilee. There shall ye 
see him, as he said to you. Lo! I 
have told you." 

And they went out with haste from 
the tomb, and with fear, and dare speak 
to no one by the way ; but ran with 
the good news to Jesus' friends. 



J. LIFE OF CHRIST. 299 

In the mean time Peter and John 
have set out in great haste to see with 
their own eyes what Mary Magdalene 
had told them of. 

They both ran, but John got to the 
tomb first, and bent down to look in. 
He saw no one, but there lay the fine 
white bands in which fond hands had 
wrapt Jesus the night of his death. 
But Peter, when he came up, did not 
stop at the door. He went right in 
the tomb, and saw the clothes. These 
clothes did not look as if they had been 
torn off in haste, but they lay in neat 
folds, each in its place. Then John 
went in, and he saw these things, and 
knew that Jesus had left the grave of 
his own free will. 

Then Peter and John went back to 
their own home. But Mary Magda- 



300 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

lene did not go. She staid to weep. 
The glad thought that Jesus could and 
must rise from the dead to prove the 
truth of all that he had said and done, 
has not as yet made its way to her 
heart. She clings to the sad thought 
that the foes of Jesus must have come 
to steal his corpse for some bad end 
of their own, and that she can not 
strew the sweet gifts she had brought 
on his grave. 

As she weeps, she stoops down to 
look in, and sees two Forms of light, 
who sit on each side of • the place 
where Jesus had lain. They say to 
her, '' Why dost thou weep ?" 

'' They have borne off my Lord, 
and I know not where they have laid 
him.'' 

When she had said this, she -turns 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 



301 



her head and sees Jesus, who stands 
near her. But her heart is so full of 
fear and grief, and her eyes of tears, 
that she does not know him. She 
thinks he must be the man who has 
charge of Joseph s grounds, and says 
to him, " Sir, if thou hast borne him 
hence, tell me where thou hast laid 
him, and I will take care of him." 

" Mary !'' 

What a thrill the well known voice 
of Jesus must have sent through that 
sad heart of hers ! 

She falls down and tries to clasp his 
feet, but all she can say is, '' My 
Lord !" But Jesus bids her touch 
him not, for he has not yet gone up 
on high. But he bids her, too, go 
and tell his friends that he will soon 
go back to his God and their God. 



302 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

On her way, Salome and Mary 2d 
join her, and Jesus meets them and 
bids them '' Fear not, but go and tell 
my friends to go to Galilee, and there 
shall they see me." 

But when they tell his friends of 
what they have seen and heard, they 
have no faith in their words. 

That same day, two friends of Je- 
sus' were on their way to Emmaus, 
which was eight miles from Jerusalem. 
As they walk, they talk of the sad 
scenes in Pilate s hall, on the road to 
Calvary, and of the death on the cross. 
In the midst of this talk one joins them 
whom they know not (it is said that 
their eyes were held so they did not 
know him), and asks them why they 
are so sad. 

Cleopas (that is the name of one of 



J. LIFE OF CHRIST. 303 

them) said that ''He who asks this can 
not have been in Jerusalem, since he 
does not know the things which have 
come to pass there in these days ?" 

" What things T asks their new 
friend. 

'' Why how Jesus of Nazareth, who 
spoke such words and wrought such 
great deeds in the sight of all men, 
has been put to death on the cross by 
our chief priests and those who rule 
us. Our hope was that it had been 
he who should save Israel, and this is 
the third day since these things were 
done. Some of our friends who went 
to his tomb at dawn, found that he 
was not there, and say that they saw 
Forms of Light, and were told by 
them that Jesus still lives." 

He who had met them heard them 



304 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

through, and then said, '' O fools and 
slow of heart, to trust all the words 
which ye have heard as to Christ and 
his work ! Ought not Christ to have 
borne all these things to prove his 
claims ?" 

And then he went back to what 
Moses and men of old wrote of Christ, 
that he might show them how all things 
had been done by Jesus of Nazareth 
which it had been said the Christ 
should do. But still their eyes wxre 
held, and they knew him not. 

When they came to Emmaus, he 
made as if he would have gone on, 
but they beg him to stay with them. 
They know not who he is, but they 
feel that it Is good to be with him. 
When they urge that the day is far 
spent and the night draws on, he turns 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 305 

in With them to the house where they 
are to stay. But their guest is soon 
their host ; for it came to pass as he 
sat at meat with them he took bread 
and did bless it, and brake and gave 
to them. Now their eyes are held no 
more, and they know their Lord ! But 
as they gaze at him in awe and love, 
he fades from their sight, and they see 
him no more. Then how they call 
up all his words and looks by the way, 
and cry, '' Did not our hearts burn as 
he spoke with us by the way ?" And 
they rose up that same hour, though 
night drew on, and went back to Jeru- 
salem to tell their friends what things 
were done in the way, and how Christ 
was made known to them as he broke 
the bread. 

That same night the friends of 
20 



3o6 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

Christ met by stealth, and with shut 
doors, for fear of the Jews. All at 
once Jesus stood in their midst with 
the words, '' Peace be with you !" 
They are in great fear at this sight, 
and think it is his ghost, for he has 
made his way to them in spite of shut 
doors and bolts and bars. 

But Jesus said, " Why do you fear? 
and why do such thoughts rise in your 
hearts ? See my hands and my feet 
that it is I ; touch me and see ; for a 
ghost hath not flesh and bones as ye 
see me have/' 

When he shows them his hands and 
feet with the rents which the nails of 
the cross had made in them, and the 
wound of the spear in his side, then 
were they glad, as they saw the Lord. 
To make them still more sure that it 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 307 

IS not his ghost, he asks for food, and 
eats in their sight. 

Then once more Jesus said, '' Peace 
be to you ! as God hath sent me forth, 
so send I you," and as he breathes on 
them he gives them the Holy Ghost. 

Now, there was one of the twelve 
who was not at the place where they 
met that night, and when those who 
had been there told him what he had 
lost, he doubts their word. He said, 
^' I shall have no faith that it is he if I 
can not see in his hands the print of 
the nails, and touch the prints of the 
nails, and thrust my hand in his side !" 

But the next week, when they met 
on what has been known from the day 
when Christ rose from the dead till 
now, as the Lord s day, Thomas was 
there. 



3o8 TEE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

When all were in and the doors 
shut, Jesus stands forth in their midst, 
and says, '' Peace be to you !" Then 
he turns to Thomas, whose head 
doubts, though his heart loves, and 
says, '' See and touch the prints of 
the nails ! Thrust thy hand in my 
side, and doubt no more, but have 
faith in meT 

Thomas' doubts all fly at these 
words. He does not care to see or 
touch the wounds of his Lord s flesh, 
for he sees through that torn flesh the 
God with us of whom Isaiah sung, 
and cries '' My Lord, and my God !" 

Christ next meets his friends as he 
had told them he would, in a mount 
in Galilee. His school seem not to 
have yet seen what Jesus meant to 
have them do. They do not break 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 309 

up, and yet some of them seem to 
have gone back to their old trades. 
Peter, at least, as he stands once more 
on the shore of the Lake of Galilee 
feels his old thirst come back, and 
cries out " I shall go and fish !" Four 
or five of Christ's school who chance 
to be with him at the time, say, '' We 
will go with thee." So they sail out 
on the lake and toil all night, but catch 
no fish. 

At dawn Jesus stood on the shore, 
but they knew him not. Nor do they 
know him when he asks if they have 
caught no fish. When they tell him 
that they have not, he bids them cast 
their net on the right side of the ship 
and they shall find fish. Still they 
know not that it is Jesus, but as they 
throw the net where he bade them, it 



310 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

fills With fish at once, so that they can 
not draw the net back on board the 
boat! Then John said to Peter '' It is 
the Lord !" 

Peter cares no more for the fish 
when he hears that glad word. He 
caught up his coat which he had laid 
off in his toil, and sprang into the sea, 
and made for the shore as fast as he 
could. The rest of the crew come on 
in the boat, and drag the net with them. 
When they reach the shore they find 
a fire of coals, and fish laid on it, and 
bread. Jesus bids them brincr some 
of the fish from the net and they find 
it full. There are not far from eieht 
score great fish, and yet the net does 
not break. Then Jesus said to them, 
'' Come and dine," and they drew near, 
but dare not speak to him. 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 311 

Jesus now acts as their host. He 
took bread and gave to them, and 
fish as well. 

When the meal is done, Jesus turns 
to Peter and speaks words which must 
have been like balm to his sore heart. 
Peters grief is still fresh for the 
wrong he had done his Lord, when 
he said three times that he knew him 
not, in the dark hour when he was 
left to trust to his own weak heart. 
But he now hears him to whom he 
had been so false, say, in mild, sweet 
tones, '' Simon, son of Jonas, dost thou 
love me more than these ?" 

Peter is not so rash as he was, and 
does not boast of his love, but he is 
sure of it, '' Yes, Lord, thou dost know 
that I love thee." Jesus then shows 
him how he can make proof of his 



312 THE CRIB TO THE CIWSS. 

love ; '' Feed my lambs." Help the 
young and the weak to find their 
strength and life in your Lord. But 
Jesus asks once more, in the same 
words. " Simon, son of Jonas, dost 
thou love me T 

'' Yes, Lord ; thou dost know that 
I love thee." 

'' Feed my sheep." 

The third time Jesus asks, ''Simon, 
son of Jona, dost thou love me !" 

Three times Peter has said, of Jesus, 
*' I know not the man," and three 
times he must own his love to Jesus. 
Peter grieves that his Lord should ask 
him this the third time, but savs with 
all his heart, " Lord, thou dost know 
all things ; thou dost know that I love 
thee." 

" Feed my sheep." 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 313 

Then Jesus tells Peter by what 
mode of death he will die, in these 
words ; " When thou wert young thou 
didst gird thee, and walk where thou 
didst please ; but when thou shalt be 
old strange hands will gird thee and 
bear thee where thou wouldst not." 

And so it came to pass, for Peter 
was to serve Christ all his life, and 
prove his love to him when an old 
man, by death, for his names sake. 
Bad men would " gird" him, as they 
had bound his Lord, to the cross. 

There are two things which are told 
of Peter, which seem as if they must 
be true, though they are not found in 
God's word. It is said that through 
all Peter s long life he could not hear 
a cock crow but it would thrill his 
heart with the thought of his base lies 



314 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

on the day when Christ was tried for 
his life ; and he would at once fall on 
his knees and pray that that foul sin 
might not be laid to his charge. Then, 
too, it is said, that when the hour 
came for him to be made fast to the 
cross on which he was to die, the same 
thought of how false he had been to 
his Lord clung to him, and made him 
beg those who were to nail him to the 
wood to place him with his head down, 
for he said he was not fit to die by the 
same death with his Lord. 

When Peter has heard what his 
own fate is to be he wants to know 
what will come to John. He knows 
how fond Jesus has been of John who 
sat with his head on his Lord s breast 
at their last feast, and so he asks, 
'' Lord, and what shall this man do ?" 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 3 1 5 

Jesus does not choose to tell. '' If 
I will that he stay till I come, what is 
that to thee ?" 

John who tells us this, says, that 
some who heard it thought Jesus 
meant by this that John should not 
die, but states that that was not what 
Christ said at all but, " If I will that 
he stay till I come, what is that to 
thee r 

Once more Jesus met his school at 
Jerusalem, and told them what their 
work in the world was to be. Not 
to fish or to take tolls, but to spread 
the good news in Jerusalem first, and 
then through all the world. He bids 
them stay in Jerusalem till the Holy 
Ghost shall come down on them to 
fit them for this great work, and then 
go forth and preach in his name. 



3i6 THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 

Jesus staid on earth two score days 
from the day when he rose from the 
dead. He gave proof on proof that he 
was the same Jesus who had died on 
the cross. He made them see at last 
what all his life had not taught them, 
that he was in truth, the King of 
kings, though not like this world's 
kings, and that they were to spread his 
realm till it should take in all the 
world. He told them too, that in this 
great work, though he would be hid 
from their sight, yet he would be with 
them. '' Lo I am with you at all 
times, to the end of the world." And 
when he had thus taught them, and 
made them strong in the faith, he left 
them to do his work. 

He leads them out as far as Bethany, 
and there lifts up his hands to bless 



A LIFE OF CHRIST. 317 

them. While he thus stands with 
eyes that beam with love, and hands 
that bless, he floats through the air up 
and up and up, till a cloud veils him 
from their sight ! It is not strange 
that this weak band should stand and 
gaze and gaze in hope that they may 
yet catch a wave of those hands which 
bless to the last, or a glimpse of the 
robe which shrouds his form. But 
they look in vain. A voice at their 
side brings their eyes back to earth. 
There stood with them two men in 
white robes who say, '' Ye men of 
Galilee, why stand ye and thus gaze ? 
This same Jesus who has thus gone 
from your sight, shall come once more 
as ye have seen him go." 

So they went back to Jerusalem 
with great joy, and spent their time in 



318 



THE CRIB TO THE CROSS. 



God s house to praise and vbless God. 
Then when the Holy Ghost came 
on them they went forth to preach in 
all lands and the Lord wrought with 
them, and still works, and will work 
with those who seek to do His work 
till the end of the world. 




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obtained by any one party. 

GRANT— SHERMAN— SHERIDAN. 

The Hero Boy. i vol., i6mo, cloth, 367 pp. illustrated, 1 25 
Being the Life and Deeds of GEN. ULYSSES S. GRANT, the - 
Patriot and Hero. Tracing his career from Boyhood to Man- 
hood, from the School-house to President of the United States, i 25 

Sherman and his Battles. i vol. i6mo, cloth, 350 pp. 

Illustrated. . . . . . . . . . 1 25 

A Boy's Life of Major-General W. T. SHERMAN. 

Sheridan^ the Soldier and Hero, i vol. i6mo, cloth, 368 

pp. Illustrated. . . . . . . . . 1 25 

A Boy's Life of Major-General P. H. SHERIDAN. 

FARRA G UT— ERICSSON— MITCHELL. 

Farragut, First in Rank and First in Battle, i vol. i6mo, 

cloth, 350 pp. Illustrated. . . . . . . 1 20 

A Boy's Life of Vice-Admiral FARRAGUT. 
The Miner Boy and his Monitor, i vol. i6mo, cloth, 300 

pp. Illustrated. . . . . . . . . 1 25 

A Boy's Life of Captain ERICSSON, the Inventor of the Famous Monitor. 

The Patriot Boy. i vol. i6mo, cloth, 300 pp. Illustra- 

trated. . . . . . . . . . . i 25 

Being the life of Major-General O. M. MITCHELL, the Astronomer and 
Hero. 

No Household Should be without Them. 

Grant — Sherman — Sheridai. 
The 3 volumes in a handsome box, bound in extra cloth, gilt back. Il- 
lustrated with fine engravings, ..... Per sec 3 "5 



G Price List, Geo. A, Leavitt, Pahlisher. 

Farragiit — Ericssofi — Mitchell. 

The 3 volumes in a handsome box, bound in extra cloth, gilt back, hand- 
somely illustrated, with fine engravings. . . . Per set 3 75 

The above books should be read by every boy and young man in the 
country. 



THE GIRLS AND MO TILERS OF THE BIBLE. 

2 vols, royal i6mo, cloth extra, and illustrated with fine steel engrav- 
ings, Per vol. 1 25 

Interesting, Useful and Instructive. 
Girls of the Bible. By P. C. Headley.' 

Mothers of the Bible. By Mrs. AsiITON. 

THE KATLE STORY BOOKS. 4 vols, small i6mo. 

Each volume profusely illustrated, handsomely bound in extra cloth, gilt 
back, in a handsome case, new style, with illuminated cover. Per 
set ........... 2 00 

The Rich and the Poor, etc. Skipping Hard Words, etc. 

The Cruel Landlord, etc. The Little Story Teller, etc. 

A series of pretty books, good reading, and full of pictures. 

THE WILLIE STORY BOOKS. 4 vols, small i6mo, 
handsomely bound in extra cloth, gilt back, and put up in a handsome 
case, new style, with illuminated cover. . . . Per set 2 00 

Pretty Stories for Willie. 
The Good Son, etc. 

Little Painter and Spruce Johnnie. 
Pretty Stories for Good Boys. 
A series of short and pretty stories, each volume full of illustrations. 

THE GOOD STORY BOOK. 4 vols, small i6mo, 

handsomely bound in extra cloth, gilt back, and put up in a handsome 
case, new style, with illuminated cover. . . . Per set 2 00 

Juvenile Sports. Good Little Stories. 

Little Rhyme Book. Reivard of Kindness. 

Short and good Stories for Girls and Boys. 



Price Li^st, Geo. A. Leavitt, Piihlisher. 7 

LITTLE GIRLS' AND BOYS' LIBRARY. 

6 vols., small i6mo, handsomely bound in extra cloth, gilt back, and put 
up in a handsome case, new style, with illuminated cover. Per set 3 00 

Mmnie^ the Broom Girl. Two Bad Boys, etc. 

Walter O'Neil. My Menagerie — Birds. 

Stuart arid Helen Bruce. My Mefiagerie — Animals. 

Stories iyi Rhyme. 

Interesting, useful, and good stories, profusely illustrated. 

UGLY DUCKLING STORY BOOKS. 

3 vols., square i2mo, handsomely bound in extra cloth, all bright colors, 
and in a neat case. ....... Per set 2 50 

The Ugly Duckling. 
Puss in Boots. 

Little Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe. 
Little Bo-Peep. 

Dan Drake's Rhymes. 
Children s Fables. 

A series of very beautiful books, in new square i2mo size, printed on the 
finest paper, and filled with very prettily-colored engravings ; very cheap 
popular books. 

A remarkably cheap and beautiful set of books. 

THE LILLIE STOR Y BOOKS. i6ino, full of illustrations. 

Lillie's Day. A new set of Juveniles, 6 vols., i6mo, 

printed on elegant paper and handsomely bound in cloth extra, an-d in 
neat case. ....... Per set 2 50 

Lillie's Day. 

Lillie's People Abroad. 

Lillie's Visit to the Menagerie. 
Lillie's Bird Garden. 

Lillie's Stories Ahotit Indians. 
Lillie's Pigeon House. 



8 Price List, Geo. A. Leavltb, Fuhlisher. 

Lillie's Evening. A new set of JuvenileS; 6 vols., i6mo, 

full of illustrations, printed on elegant paper and handsomely bound 
in cloth extra, and a neat case. .... Per set 2 50 

Lillies Evening. Lillies Grajidfather. 

Lillies Aunt Lucy. Lillies Little Housewife. 

Lillie's Canary, Lillie's NaugJity Brother. 

THE FORGE T-ME-NO T LIBRAR V. 3 vols., i6mo, in 

handsome case, new style, illuminated cover, and illustrated with fine 
steel engravings, and handsomely bound in extra cloth, new and beautiful 
style for presents. ....... Per set 3 00 

Juvenile Forget-Me-Not. The Rosebud. 

The Violet. 
A handsome series of books adapted for presents. 



THE ICEEPSAKE LIBRARY. 3 vols., i6mo, in neat 

case, new style, illuminated cover, and handsomely bound in extra cloth. 
New and beautiful style for presents. .... Per-set 3 00 

The Youtlis Keepsake. The Huimni?ig Bird. 

The Pet A7ihnaL 
Three handsome volumes, bound in a new and beautiful style, 

THE KRISS KRINGLE STORY BOOKS. 3 vols., 

square i6mo, handsomely bound in extra cloth, gilt back, new and beauti- 
ful style for presents, in handsome case, new style, illuminated cover. 

Per set 3 co 
The same. Elegantly bound in fine cloth, gilt side, gilt edges, 3 vols, in 
handsome case. ....... Per set 4 00 

Kriss Kringle's Story Book. St. Nicholas' Story Book. 
Santa Clans Story Book. 
A series of charming books for youths, girls, or boys, illustrated with fine 
steel engravings and bound in a new and very handsome style. 



Trice List, Geo. A. Leavitt, Fahlisher. 9 

SANTA CLA US' FAIRY STORY BOOKS, 6 vols., square 

i6mo, handsomely bound in cloth extra, in neat case. . Per set 5 co 

Arabian NigJits. Giillivcrs Ti'avcls. 

Fairy Godraother. Fable Land. 

yEsop's Fables. Fairy Tales. 

Beautiful editions of standard juvenile books 

THE GULLIVER LIBRARY. 3 vols., square i6mo, bound 

in extra cloth, and put up in a handsome box, new style, and illuminated 
cover, .,.,..... Per set 2 50 

Gulliver s Travels. Arabian Nights, 

^sofs Fables. 
Three of the most popular of juvenile books. 

AUNT FANNY.— THE SOCK STORIES. 6 vols., square 
i6mo, illustrated, and bound in cloth extra, in neat case. Per set 5 co 

Blue, White and Red Socks. Part I. 
Funny Little Socks. 

Blue, White arid Red Socks. Part IL 
• Fzmny Big Socks. 

German Socks. 

Neighbor Nellie's Socks. 
The most popular of writers for the amusement of children. 

AUNT MARYS STORY BOOKS. 6 vols., i6mo, hand- 
somely illustrated and bound, in cloth extra. . . Per set 4 50 

Aimt Marys Stories. Gift Story Book. 

Frank and Fanny. Parley s New York. 

Peep at Birds. Peep at Beasts. 

MOTHER GOOSES MELODIES. Square i6mo, stiff 

paper cover. ........ Per copy 20 

The Samf.. Bound in cloth extra. .... Per copy • 50 

Best and pure edition of Mother Goose. 



10 Price List, Geo. A. Leavitt, Puhlisher. 

A NEW AND UNIQUE SET OF BOOKS. 

THE MAGIC PICTURE BOOKS. In six volumes, small 

quarto, colored plates. This is an entirely new and unique set of books, 
each volume contains 12 handsomely colored illustrations, with 14^ 
changes, making 144 highly amusing and comic pictures, handsomely 
bound, illuminated boards- ..... Per vol. %o 50 

CHILDREN'S SCRAP BOOK. Complete in i vol., quarto, 

containing nearly 1,000 plates, brightly colored, cloth extra. . 3 00 

ALL THE CHILDREN'S NURSERY RHYME BOOK. 
Cloth, gilt 75 

2ESOFS FABLES. Full of illustrations, i6mo, cloth ex- 
tra. . . ' ' 1'^ 

ARABIAN NIGHTS.* Illustrated, i6mo, cloth extra, 75 

GULLIVERS TRAVELS. Illustrated, i6mo, cloth ex- 
tra 75 

PICTURE GIFT BOOK. Large 4to, 200 beautifully colored 

engravings, cloth extra . . . . . . . . 2 00 

PICTURE BOOK FOR GOOD BOYS AND GIRLS. Large 
4to, 200 colored engravings, fancy boards . . . . 2 00 

Cheap and Attractive Books. 
PRE TTY PICTURES A ND PLEA SA NT RH YMES. Large 

4to, 1 50 colored engravings, fancy boards - - - - 1 00 

CHILD'S SCRAP BOOK. Large 4to, 150 colored engrav- 
ings, fancy boards, ........ 1 00 

PICTORIAL GIFT FOR LITTLE ONES. Large 4to, 150 

colored engravings, fancy boards, . . . . . . i 00 



Price List, Geo. A. Leavitt, Publisher. 11 

BOTS HANDY BOOK OF GAMES, SPORTS, PASTIMES, 

and Amusements ; being a complete Encyclopasdia of Boyish Recreative 
• Pursuits of every description, and forming a guide to the Employment of 
every Leisure Hour. Full of illustrations and handsomely bound in ex- 
tra cloth, full gilt side and edges. 348 pages, post 8vo . . $3 00 

The best Book of Games. One of the most popular and salable Juvenile 
Books published. 

NURSERY RHYMES, OLD AND NEW. A collection of 

the most Favorite Nursery Rhymes, Jingles and Stories ; also, many New 
Ones now for the first time printed. Imperial 32mo, numerous clever and 
characteristic illustrations, extra cloth, gilt sides, back and edges . 2 ^o 

EVENINGS AT HOME; or, THE JUVENILE BUDGET 
OPENED. Consisting of a variety of Miscellaneous Pieces for the In- 
struction and Amusement of Young Persons. By Dr. Aiken and Mrs. 
Barbauld. Extra cloth, gilt side, back and edges, full of illustra- 
tions, . . . . . . . . . . . 2 00 

The best and cheapest edition of this style published. Full of illustrations 
and handsomely bound in extra cloth, full gilt side and edges. Royal i6mo. 

THE LIFE AND SURPRISING ADVENTURES OF ROB- 
INSON CRUSOE, of York, Mariner. By Daniel De Foe. With a 
Biographical Sketch of the Author. Embellished with a great number of 
engravings on wood. Extra cloth, gilt side, back and edges. . 2 00 

THE HISTORY OF SANFORD AND MERTON. By 
Thomas Day. Illustrated with 100 engravings by the Brothers DalzieL 
Extra cloth, gilt side, back and edges, . . . . . 2 00 

BUNYANS PILGRIMS PROGRESS from this World to 

that which is to come. A new edition, with a Memoir. Illustrated with 
100 engravings by the Brothers Dalziel. Extra cloth, gilt side, back and 
edges ^ 2 00 



12 Plaice List, Geo. A. Leavitt, PLthllsher. 

The Standard Favorite Series. 

In small 8vo, piinted on toned paper, richly bound in cloth and gold and 
gilt edges, with new and original Frontispiece, printed in colors. 

THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. Poems and Essays. By 

Oliver Goldsmith. 

BUNYAlYS PILGRnrS PROGRESS. 

THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 

yESOFS FABLES. With instructive Applications. By 

Dr. Croxall. 

THE HISTORY OF SANFORD AND MERTON, 

EVENINGS AT HOME; or, THE JUVENILE BUDGE I 
OPENED. 6 vols., in neat case, bound in cloth and gold, gilt edges. 

Per vol. $1 50 
The above are very elegan-t and remarkably cheap editions of the?e <-.■,] 

favorite Works. 



The Little Crusoe Library. 

Beautiful editions of these popular books. Demy iSmo, illustrated, cloth 
extra, full gilt side and gilt edges. 

THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. Poems and Essays. By 

Oliver Goldsmith. 

ALSOFS FABLES. With Instructive AppUcations. By 
Dr. Croxall. 

BUNYANS PILGRIMS PROGRESS. 

THE LIFE AND ADVENTURE^OFROBINSON CRUSOE. 



Price List, Geo. A. Leavitt, FiMisliev. 



THE HISTORY OF SANFORD AND MERTON. 

EVENINGS AT HOME ; or, THE JUVENILE BUDGET 
OPENED. 

UNEXPECTED PLEASURES. 
* TREASURY ANECDOTES. 

Eight volumes, beautifully bound in cloth and gold, gilt edges, in neat 
case, ......... Per vol. %o 90 

The above series of elegant and useful books are specially prepared for the 
entertainment and instruction of young persons. 



INDESTRUCTIBLE AND BEAUTIFUL 



^Wl 



!1§> 



Now manufactured exclusively for Geo. A. Leavitt, by Geo. R. Mooney, 
97 Cliff street, New York, the original manufacturer of the well-known 
■* Indestructible Books " for children, printed on linen cloth in oil colors, and 
in addition to the "Indestructible Books," the subscriber offers a large 
variety of Toy Books, on paper, also printed in colors, 

INDESTRUCTIBLE TOY BOOKS. Printed on linen cloth 

in oil colors, and assorted in dozens, as follows : 
The House that Jack Built. 

Old Mother Hubbard arid her Dog. 
Little Bo-Peep and Henny Penny 
The Three Bears. 

Cock Robin and Jenny Wren. 

Mother Goose and Simple Simon. 

Price, per dozen 3 75 

INDESTRUCTIBLE NURSERY RHYMES. Printed on 

linen cloth in oil colors, and assorted in dozens, as follows • 
Aunt Marys Nursery Rhymes. 

Aunt Kitty s Nursery Rhymes. 

A lent Jen7iys Nursery Rhymes. 

Price, per dozen 3 75 



14 Plaice List, Geo. A. Leavitt, Fuhlisher. 



INDESTRUCTIBLE PRIMERS, Printed on linen cloth in 

oil colors : 

The Boys and Girls Primer. 
The Bible Alphabet. 

The Far7ner Boys A Iphabet. 

Each book contains Alphabets and Spelling and Reading Lessons. 

Price, per dozen %i - --, 

RHYMES WITHOUT REASON. Printed in oil colors, 

with illustrations, by C. H. Bennett. . . Price, per dozen 2 00 

UNTEARABLE OCTAVO BOOKS. Printed on the finest 

paper. Four kinds in oil colors : 
Little Bo-Peep. 
Three Bears. 

Little Man and Maid. 

Old Woman and her Pig. 

Price, per dozen 1 80 

ONE-TWO, BUCKLE MY SHOE. Illustrated by Court- 
land Hoppin, and beautifully printed in oil colors. Twelve illustrations. 
Small quarto. ...... Price, per dozen 3 00 

ILLUMINATED ABC SERIES. Elegantly colored, with 

brilliantly illuminated covers, and consisting of — 

Pretty ABC. Fairy ABC. 

Child's ABC. 

Price, per dozen 3 00 

NE W NURSE R Y RHYMES. Printed in oil colors, on tinted 

paper, and illustrated by thei)est artists. Assorted in dozens, containing — 

Aunt Marys Nursery Rhymes. 

Aunt Kitty s Nursery Rhymes. 

Aunt Jenny s Nursery RJiymes.. 

Price, per dozen 1 80 



Frice List, Geo. A. Leavitt, Publisher. 15 

STORIES FROM THE SCRIPTURES. Printed in oil colors, 

on tinted paper, and beautifully illustrated. In dozens, as follows : 
The Story of Samson. The Story of Ruth. 

The Story of David. 

Price, per dozen %\ 80 

LITTLE LESSONS FOR LITTLE FOLKS. Printed in oil 

colors on tinted paper. Three kinds, assorted in dozens. 

Price, per dozen i 00 

CHILUS BIBLE STORY BOOKS. Printed in oil colors, 

on tinted paper. Three kinds, assorted in dozens. 

Price, per dozen 1 00 

A SET OF CHINA. A charming series of Chinese Story 

Books, printed in brilliant oil colors. With original designs by H. L. 
Stephens. The series consists of — 

Fitn and Hey-Ho. So-Sli and Ho-Fi. 

Fnm-Ftmi and Fee-Fee. 
Assorted together. ..... Price, per dozen 3 00 

THE ILLUMINATED BOOK OF NURSERY RHYMES. 

Printed in oil colors, on tinted paper. Containing nearly one hundred il- 
lustrations, and bound in boards, with illuminated cover. Quarto. 

Price, in boards per vol. 75 



TALES OF OLD ENGLISH LIFE; or, PICTURES OF 
THE PERIODS. By William Francis Collin, LL.D. Author of 
** History of England," etc. In crown 8vo, toned paper, cloth extra, full 
gilt 2 25 

THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE MIND. By Isaac Watts. 
An entirely new edition, carefully revised, uniform with the above in style 
and price . . . . . . . . * . 2 25 



16 Price List, Geo. A. Leavitt, Publisher. 



POETRY. 

Beautiful editions, elegantly printed and bound, and illustrated with fine 
»ceel engravings, for gifts, the drawing-room, the boudoir, and the Library. 

"••,^^"' The Publisher begs to call the Special Attention of the Trade to these new 
editions of the Favorite Standard Poets, embracing some fourteen entirely dif- 
ferent styles, from the smallest readable " Brilliant" to the '' Royal Octavo An- 
tique," making the most perfect assortment ever offered in the United States. 
They are printed on superfine paper, and bound by Somerville in his best man- 
ner. 

THE ''BRILLIANT' EDITION OF THE POETS. Ele- 
gantly printed on toned and laid paper, and handsomely bound in extra 
cloth, gilt tops. 24 volumes now ready, forming a very complete library 
of Poetry. Good legible type, and the smallest and most portable edi- 
tions of the Poets ever published, and at the extraordinary low price of 
56 cents per volume. 

Voivper. Lady of the Lake. Wordsworth. 

Southey. Campbell. Lalla Rookh. 

Montgomery. Poetry of Floivers. Mrs. Norton. 

Scott. Eliza Cook. Coleridge. 

The above 12 volumes put up in a handsome case. . Per vol. 56 

Milton. Thomson and Gray. 

Goldsmith. Mrs. He mans. 

Poetry of Sentiment. Mary Hoivitt. 

Pollok's Course of Time. Poetry of the Affection. 

Rogers. Young s Night Thoughts. 

Poetry of the Passions. ^ Mrs. Sigourney. 

The above 12 volumes put up in a neat case. . . Per vol. 56 

THE LIBRAR Y OF POE TR Y. '' Brilliant " edition. Com- 
prising the whole 24 volumes put up in a handsome, substantial, and con- 
venient case. A new and superior style. " • . Per vol. 56 
An exceedingly beautiful set of books, and a very useful and valuable 

present. The 24. volumes for §13 50. 
















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